Et Filia
by Sarahtropolis
Summary: A mysterious vampire from Thierry's past seeks refuge in Circle Daybreak...
1. Prologue

Prologue

* * *

The city was swathed in mist; it hung low, turning street lamps romantic and figures sinister in the half lit street. Two vampires stood in the middle of the road staring at one another, their eyes throwing the light of the street lamps back at one another, like round silver coins.

They had been standing there for some time, saying nothing, unmoving, and the air between them bore the faint traces of ozone.

"It's been a long time, Ethīn." His voice was like a caress of the past and she closed her eyes to luxuriate in the sound.

She had been walking through the city for endless hours, a petite wraith untouched by the warmth and life of the place; it wasn't until she chanced upon him that she finally felt tangible.

"It has. I am Eva Vasilia now. And you?" Her voice was lightly accented.

"Thierry." He said. "Thierry Descouedres."

Her eyes moved over him again, slowly taking him in, his tall slender frame, the pale shade of his hair curling softly upon his neck, the darkness of his eyes filled with enduring temperance. "What are you doing here, Eva?" He asked softly.

It was not by chance that Thierry had been out walking in the dusk of the Las Vegas streets; it was early that morning he had felt the presence, it was like a sliver of ice in his the base of his skull signifying the arrival of something or someone Powerful. He had to go and find it, he could have sent others, true but he knew it was important he go himself.

"Our Houses are in chaos and you…"

"And me?"

"I hear you are the coven-master of a witch Circle."

His lips twitched in a smile and he inclined his head in a nod to confirm. "I've found her."

She blinked, lips parting and closing as if deciding not to speak her mind. His words, such words, would haunt her and burrow deep into her soul prodding at the kernel of sadness that lay in its silt.

"I seek only peace in this world. I would like you to join me, would you join me?" He asked.

Her eyes glittered, fighting back the melancholy of loss. "You would have me back in your House?"

He reached out, his slender fingers touching the back of her hand, she startled at his touch; she had not been touched for centuries. "You are always welcome in my home, Eva." A solitary tear rolled down her cheek. "Come, there's someone I want you to meet."

* * *

Miss S


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

* * *

They sat in the back of the sleek black town car; Eva had her head pressed to the cool windowpane watching the dark silhouettes beyond the tinted window.

Thierry sat beside her, his fingers touching hers and her skin felt cold beneath his touch. His eyes were fixed to her profile watching her remote expression as she lingered inside a memory.

* * *

_Around 1500 BC_

The wind danced on the snowy ridge making the new fallen snow rise in ecstatic spirals against the whiteness of the sky. This land was known as Byehliy for snow ever graced the mountain peaks and the skies were rarely any other colour.

Ethīn Iceborn stood ankle deep in snow watching the colourless sky as if waiting for something or someone. It was the cold season and she donned her warmest skin, the white wolf's fur; she had slaughtered it herself, but still it did not keep the chill from her bones. She feared the cold was inside her.

"What are you doing, _verale_?"

_Verale_ was the common word for bastard and she was indeed a bastard, a child forced upon her mother by a ferocious warrior from the Eastern Jiuzhou tribe. Her mixed descent was in the slant of her eyes, the highness of her cheekbones, her slight stature and raven black hair; all so different from the tall willowy beauty of the tribeswomen of the Voin.

She would never be known as the daughter of her mother, she would forever be Iceborn as if nature herself had brought her into this world; Ethīn would have no claim to her mother's bounties, she would be heir to no hearth, she would live and die without note, other than the mercy the Tannak, Orech the Fair had shown her.

She glanced briefly at the man who spoke. "Something is coming upon the winds." She murmured.

"It is winter and storms are abound." He said with a grunt. "The Tannak is calling for you."

She moved upon the snow as light footed as a bird.

The tents of the tribesmen were made from the hides of reindeer, staving off the worst of the bitter winds; the largest was located in the centre, it was the quarters of the Tannak of the Voin, their king.

She opened the flap and ducked inside, surrounded by the warmth of hot stones and cups of burning oil. It cast a red-orange light on the darkness of her hair and eyes.

"Ah, there you are."

Ethīn fell to one knee in complete deference to the Tannak, her king, Orech the Fair.

His pale hair hung in dreaded knots around his face, Orech had a feminine beauty that was not to the taste of the Voin, his jaw was pointed and hairless, his lips a pink bow and his eyes were large turquoise pools.

She owed this pretty man her life for he had allowed her into the tribe despite the threat of curses whispered about by the people. The _verale_ were abandoned to the forestland, for the whim of the goddess, to do as she wished. Often it would please Her to feed the bears or the wolves.

"I am sorry if I've kept you waiting, Tannak."

"It must be a long walk from the white wilderness." The Tannak's kinsmen, a tall silver-haired hunter, Imre muttered.

"Enough." Orech said.

"We have been in conference these past hours, Ethīn."

"I am at your will, my Tannak."

"You will escort the Jewel of the Voin across the Ider River to Chief Argan of The Great Jüz."

She looked up in surprise. "Me?"

"Yes." Orech said with faint amusement. "You, Ethīn Iceborn."

"Tannak-"

Orech held up his hand silencing his kinsman. "There is no warrior in all the Voin who has the skill and pace."

"You would trust the Jewel in the hands of this _verale_?" Imre growled.

"I would." Orech said his eyes on Ethīn's bowed head.

"Tannak, how can this be?"

"Ethīn has knowledge of the lands beyond the Ider, she is skilled in the hunt and sword and she is a woman with no hearth." He explained though it caused Ethīn's spirit to quell. "The The Great Jüz will not see her as a threat and yet she will protect the Jewel with her life, her blade is keen, her wits are sharp."

Ethīn met Orech's eyes and she reached out, taking hold of the Tannak's spearhead and sliced her hand on the sharp edge of his spear tip; a breath hissed passed Imre's lips. "Upon my blood and the pain of Morana's mercy, I shall deliver the Jewel to the men of Chief Argan." She said.

A growl vibrated past Imre's lips.

"So be it." The Tannak said.

"I have given my blood oath." Ethīn said showing the meaty slit on her palm.

"An oath made in blood cannot be undone." Elica said appearing from between two kinsmen. Ethīn bowed her head the instant she heard her mother's voice; by all etiquette of the Voin she should have fled Hanak Eilca's very presence but Orech put a hand on Ethīn's shoulder, rooting her to the spot.

"The time for discussion is at an end, Hanak." Orech said addressing her as a high born Lady of the Voin.

"There are many who do not wish peace with the hordes, there are many who have lost sons and more to their warriors and have done so for generations."

"Is our pride so great that we would refuse to embrace opportunity at the risk of making us weak? The hordes are not the only hunters in the region and we have been set upon by more than Argan's spears, Elica. A thing you know too well."

Ethīn flinched again, his words and her presence was insult to the old wound.

"My hearth is at your will, Tannak." Elica said with a deep incline of her head.

The tent flap opened and a young woman appeared, she was lithe and graceful with golden blond hair and the ethereal features of her father. Orech beckoned his daughter forward. "You have heard my decree, Katrine?"

She raised her eyes to meet her father's gaze and inclined her head in a nod. "Yes, father."

"You may go, Ethīn." The Tannak said turning his back on her to continue speaking with his daughter.

Ethīn slipped away quietly, easing into the biting air of outside and into the tall shadow of a formidable woman. "Dathak Katr." Ethīn lowered her head in deference.

The Dathak barely glanced at her. "Where is my daughter?" Her voice was cool, painted with undercurrents of disdain.

"With the Tannak." Ethīn said.

Katr walked past her without another glance and disappeared inside the tent. Ethīn headed toward her own, it was small, enough for her to sleep and a wooden basin to wash and drink; of all the tents of the Voin, hers was the smallest, the humblest and by far the coldest.

* * *

_Present Day_

The mansion was brightly lit on the outside; throwing the white stone and wrought iron work in a charming golden luminosity. The complex was teeming with life, the sound of voices, laughter and music trickled from the doors and windows like a glowing chorus.

"This is your home?" Eva asked softly feeling fragile as if made from glass; she feared the press of bodies inside and the warmth spilling from within.

"Our home, if you will allow it." He said and reached out a hand for her to take.

She took it with some reverence, finding his slender fingers warm to the touch where hers were so cold. Despite this he didn't pull away but engulfed her hand in his, squeezing to offer reassurance.

He pulled her gently toward his home and she steeled herself to face what was beyond the door, she felt the thick swathe of magic upon the door, a skilled ward that stuck to her skin as she passed through, such magic would, if active, leech a person if their strength both physical and metaphysical.

Beyond the threshold her senses were assaulted with a myriad of scents, sights and the Presence of many People pressed upon her mind. She had not been amid such a crowd for so long that panic reared up inside her, an animal instinct urging her to turn and run and yet…and yet the strange tugging sensation that had pulled her from her mourning chambers was nagging at her now.

A tall, slim vampire appeared and bowed before Thierry. "Did you have a pleasant outing, sir?" Nilssen asked his eyes flicked to Eva's and then away.

"Yes. Can you fetch the lady of the house, please?"

Nilssen gave a curt bow and left.

"There are other vampires in your Circle?"

"We are an equal opportunities Circle for all those who seek peace or protection." He said.

"As you dreamt of so long ago." She said.

A smile touched his lips and he nodded.

"You've changed." She said staring into his dark dark eyes, seeing in them a brightness that he had lacked in their time together.

"Thierry?" A dulcet voice chimed in and Eva took a step back as the human darted across the foyer and launched herself into Thierry's embrace, with no hint of concern for the stranger standing beside him.

"Will that be all, sir?" Nilssen asked having had to clear his throat to gain Thierry's attention.

"Yes, thank you, Nilssen." Thierry said his eyes not once leaving the human girl's face, his hands firmly ensconced around her slim waist. "Eva this is my wife, Hannah and Hannah this is…my…this is Eva." What had started out as a fevered introduction slowed into a stuttering one, for he had not yet told Hannah of the entirety of the deeds of his past.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Hannah said thrusting out a hand.

Eva stared at it, the golden tanned fingers pulsing with human warmth and glowing with the flow of blood, she was not seeing a human hand nor the girl beyond it but a humanoid network of radiant veins and capillaries welcoming her to sink her teeth in. She hadn't fed in a long time.

"I did not want to believe it." Eva whispered, eyes moving to seek out Thierry, her arms wrapping around herself as if she could fold away the temptation to feed.

Hannah glanced between the two. "Thierry?" She asked uncertain. Words and sentiments seemed to pass between the two vampires for several moments and Hannah was exempt from the exchange.

"I have many questions as I imagine you have." Eva said her voice barely above a whisper. "But I am tired-"

"Of course." Thierry said gently. "I will have someone show you to your rooms. We can talk later."

People came and passed before her eyes, the words spoken was barely a rumble in her mind whether she offered a greeting she did not know for she seemed to act outside of her own will such was her exhaustion. Her eyes moved over them, not seeing them and she felt that they did not truly see her until she met a pair of solid grey eyes.

They stared at her, seeing her and for an instant she felt herself become real, her vision focusing not on the potential for blood but on the gentle features and grey eyes of a human boy.

* * *

Hugh Davis had been travelling for sixteen hours, though he was in high spirits despite his exhaustion; he had a backpack slung over one shoulder and a white German Shepherd running at his heels. "If you insist on coming you have to keep up, Jupiter." He said addressing the dog over his shoulder.

The dog barked at him as if it comprehended his words and his lips twitched in a smile.

"Bringing in more strays?" A wry voice asked. Hugh glanced up to find Ash Redfern reclining on a deck chair on the patio.

"Stargazing?" Hugh asked with an amused smile.

"How was San Francisco?" Ash deflected.

"Fine." He said tensely, the word squeezed out from between his clenched teeth.

"You can't bring that in there." Ash said.

"What Jupiter?" He ran his fingers through the fur between the dog's eyes. "He wouldn't hurt a fly."

"How about a flea? It looks like it's rolled in sh-"

"Ash." Soren Sidabrast admonished as she stepped through the patio doors. "Welcome back, Hugh."

"Good to be back." He said and he motioned with his head toward the noise inside the house. "What's going on?"

"There's new blood on the premises." Soren said.

"Old blood." Ash corrected blithely.

"A recruit?" Hugh asked.

"Maybe. Lord Descouedres looks awfully fond of her."

"Want to take a look?" Ash asked and placing a hand on Soren's shoulder they went into the house. Hugh followed them inside, Jupiter paused at the doors, staring with a cocked head.

"Come on, Jupe, just one small step and we're home."

The dog barked and bounded into the house, Hugh struggled to keep up with him. He was glad to see the familiar walls and faces, he offered a smile and they in turn greeted him with a pat or a wave. He joined the edge of the crowd in the foyer, he got a few claps on the back there and exchanged some brief greetings.

Hugh was tall enough to stare over the heads of the others to see; his eyes met the small vampire girl and he felt as if the floor were falling from beneath his feet. He had to grasp Soren's arm to stay on his feet and the dog barked happily beside him.

* * *

Miss S


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

* * *

With the weight of exhaustion and shock pressing down upon him, Hugh enlisted Soren to help him his room. "You want the dog with you?" Soren asked and the German Shepherd stopped in his tracks, ears flicked up, as if listening and comprehending his words. "I could ask the kennel master to-"

Jupiter barked furiously.

"It's fine." Hugh said pausing to run his fingers over Jupiter's furry head and he quieted in an instant.

"You okay?" Soren was concerned for his friend.

"It's been a long journey." Hugh said with a conciliatory smile that didn't meet his eyes.

"Whatever you say." He murmured as they came to his door and Hugh readjusted his bag on his shoulder and ushered the dog toward the room. "Do you want to shoot some pool tomorrow? I'll fill you in on all the gory details."

Hugh nodded and said good night to his friend.

Inside the cool cavern of the room, he dumped his bag unceremoniously on the floor, and Jupiter dance around the pack, sniffing at it. He was more exhausted than he had anticipated and sighed as he sunk down on the bed, folding his arms behind him.

Jupiter hopped onto the mattress beside him and resting half across his legs and Hugh was too tired to move the dog or undress, he slept until the dawn peered through the slit of his badly drawn curtains.

He was back in San Fransisco in the shadow of the Orpheum Theatre, the ethereal beauty of Cat Devereux even more elusive in the neon glow of the theatre sign. "I'm sorry, Hugh." She said but her voice floated and echoed all about him.

"It doesn't have to be this way." He said, his voice also distorted and vibrated strangely through the dreamscape. "You have a choice."

Cat laughed but it wasn't a sound of joy, her expression was one of utter misery. "Take care of Jupiter will you?"

"Cat." He called after her.

She turned her back on him and walked down Market Street, losing herself in the crowd of people. "Cat." He called out and the scene darkened around him and an icy chill rose. He wrapped arms around himself to stave off the worst of it and then he heard the distant sound of growling beasts.

He stood knee deep in coldness now surrounded by the silhouette of a forest of blackened, gnarled trees and black eyes glittered at him in the darkness.

His ears were assailed by a stream of whispers in a language he didn't know but was nonetheless familiar to him. It was as if the frigid winds of this terrible place was talking to him, summoning him, threatening him.

The dreams shifted, fast and the ice was replaced by the sudden heat of a body against his, two budding breasts pressed against his chest, all the soft femininity surrounding him like embryonic warmth and the thrilling sensation of soft, silky lips upon the taught skin of his throat.

He thought he was dreaming of Cat but knew it was the vampire girl, Lord Thierry's guest. It was the vampire who was wrapped around him as dangerous and beautiful as a snake. He hadn't been aware of his breath or heart beat until that moment and his pulse thundered, his breath released in staccato gasps of fear, of ecstasy and then the immeasurable pain of nails – claws - scoring into the meat of his leg.

He woke with a start. Jupiter barked as their eyes met.

"I'm okay." He wasn't sure if he was reassuring the dog or himself, Jupiter lay down his head again, eyes looking sympathetic from where they were rolled up to meet Hugh's tense expression.

He got up, eased out of the bed and the dog followed at his heels an easy and obedient companion.

He went through the winding halls to the dining room, the mansion was a veritable maze but Hugh had come to master it over time.

He was alert, something he'd learned over the years: to be always alert and able to observe everything around him, to identify his enemies and neutralise them. He had lived the lives of generals, beggars and kings, his input in the millennium battle was thought to be of worth and yet tonight he felt as vulnerable as an infant alert but sluggish in his movements as if his dreams had weight.

He saw two silhouettes standing intimately close, he heard the low rumble of voices and as he neared them he recognised Thierry and the vampire girl. Thierry's expression was sober; he noticed Hugh's approach and putting a hand on the girls' back drew her away into another room.

Hugh's stomach was doing flip flops, he was hyper aware of her momentary presence. Jupiter snuffled into his hand, wet nose startling him. He wanted to follow but he resisted the urge.

He went to the kitchen to fetch some water for them both.

Even as he put the bottle to his lips his thoughts were of the curious vampire girl; she was small beside Thierry, although there was no doubting her strength, she was a predator in tune with her body agile and dangerous. Her dark slanting eyes with pinprick points of pure light, her mouth was sensuously made a beautiful bow that only hid the danger of her sharp teeth.

Jupiter lifted his head, ears flicking to the sides, hearing something beyond Hugh's human capabilities. "What is it?" He asked.

Jupiter barked and bounded in the direction Thierry and the girl had taken.

"Jupiter." He called after the dog. "Jupe."

He limped after the dog, unable to match its speed.

The halls were empty, dully lit, and his eyes took time to adjust to the semi-light.

He emerged in the atrium near the eastern quarter, the exotic birds tittered softly in their cages, moving around nervously at the sound of his approach. The scent of the late spring flowers sweetened the air.

He came across the vampire girl crouched before Jupiter, her elegant hands were petting him expertly whilst she whispered to the dog and Jupiter grunted as if they were conversing back and forth.

"Jupiter." Hugh said and the dog's head turned toward him, he barked and left the girl's side to join Hugh.

The girl stood.

"I'm sorry if he was bothering you." Hugh said eyes moving from Jupiter to her face, her eyes were so dark they looked like large black, glittering discs. Her lips moved, speaking in a language he couldn't comprehend; words like those in his dream and her voice was like the touch of an icy wind.

Jupiter began to growl.

She moved, almost too fast for him to see: he had to angle his head down to look into her eyes as she was suddenly in front of him. She looked wild, fevered, possessed. Those dark eyes glittering ferociously. She stood on her tip toes, her mouth hovering centimetres from his; his breath was warm against her skin close enough to kiss. "Stay away from me." She whispered in her lyrical accent.

She disappeared, moving fast again and he was left swaying on his feet, bereft of her presence.

* * *

Miss S


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

* * *

Eva woke with a start and found herself surrounded by the unfamiliar; it took her minutes to remind herself where she was. She had the distinct memory of the human boy's eyes, grey irises ringed with the white of panic his lips parting centimetres from her own; she shook her head as if to dispel the image from her mind.

Clothes had been left for her, folded over the back of a chair: a black boiler suit and combat boots with a note of apology for it was all Thierry had available and no other resident member was her size.

She took time to bathe, luxuriating beneath the hot spray of the shower willing to believe for a moment that the water could wash away the lingering feel of her mortal memories.

The curse of immortality was the long memory she bore and the clarity in which she remembered her mortal life, was at times, more real to her than the present.

She dressed and left the room, conscious of Thierry's presence in the house. She sensed the other members of the Day moving behind closed doors, there was a sense of purpose and order in this place.

She came to stand by a set of bay windows overlooking a long stretch of verdant lawn, palm trees framed the garden creating a corridor of exotic green and carefully tended flowers were in full bloom adding fragrance to the place.

"Nice view, isn't it?"

Eva startled, she hadn't heard the woman approach and when she turned to meet her eyes she was wary of the glittering edge of anger in her gaze. "My name is Circe." She said as if the name held significance. It didn't, not to Eva anyway who serenely turned her face away.

Circe was Amazonian in her frame, but there was a tall, slender grace to her body.

Pale fingertips alighted Eva's arm and she felt a surge of prickling power move up her arm inch by painstaking inch. "You look familiar to me." Circe said softly, seductively. "You are Lord Thierry's _friend_?" That word _friend_ was said in a distasteful tone that was meant to incite her.

"I am." Eva replied the first hint of passion colouring her voice.

"What is your name?"

"Eva Vasilia."

"Vasilia." Circe red lips curved into a mocking smile. "Royal is it? Do you consider yourself of royal blood?"

Eva's eyes met the witch's, there had been many like Circe in the vampire Court, strong and deadly women whose beauty veiled the beastly parts of them. "Who I am bears no relevance or reward for you, Circe." As she spoke she felt her fangs grow, reacting to the heat and threat of violence.

The witch stepped close, her lips was a warm line against her own, Eva felt as if she could suck at that warmth and the rich rosy power of the witch. "I seek only to protect those I love and you Eva Vasilia strike me as a very dangerous animal. I see them being drawn to you like a moth to a flame and in you I see a bright flame, an all-consuming flame."

Circe's words were meant to provoke, to test her resolve and Eva was resolved not to react, to move even the merest inch would amplify the crystal hard hunger radiating through her body.

The witch's magic continued like needles sweeping across Eva's body, not altogether unpleasant but then the Power tightened like a garrotte wire around her throat.

Someone grasped Circe by her upper arm and pulled her back. "Back off." The grey-eyed boy commanded hotly through his teeth and his grip on Circe's arm looked firm and almost painful.

"Ah, Sir Hugh, the White Knight has arrived." Circe mocked and detached herself from Hugh's grasp. "I'll be watching you, princess." She said archly before sauntering away.

"She could have seriously hurt you." Hugh murmured.

Eva released a shaky and completely unnecessary breath, her fangs retracted slowly as she pushed the near irrepressible hunger down into the pit of her being. "I could have stopped her myself." She said her voice soft but not without steel.

His eyes met hers and she felt the icy trickle of panic as the strange tide of magic rose between them. "Who are you?" He asked unable to stop himself, paying no heed to warning she had given him only a night ago. "I feel as if I know-"

She turned and walked away.

"Wait." He called aft her but she didn't stop nor slow her pace, instead she picked up speed until she disappeared in the opposite direction.

Eva had rounded a corner and almost collided with Thierry. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" He grasped her arms to steady her and he could see the distress plain on her face, a true emotion breaking through the statue-like mask of having been in the vampire Court for so long.

"I don't know." She said miserably. "Why did you bring me to this place?"

"This is my home, Eva and you are my family."

"Family?" She laughed bitterly as tears filled her eyes. "I am _verale_, Theorn. Unwelcome. I have no family." With that she marched away and he could nothing but watch.

Thierry sat at his desk an unsettling feeling was lodged in his chest as the thought of Eva's tear filled eyes occupied his mind.

* * *

_Around 1500 BC _

Theorn was travelling on foot, north, always north to find the place of his birth, the lands of the witch tribe that were now concealed beneath ice. He had the hot breath of smoke still upon him, the destruction of Ama-Sin still haunted him.

He had stood and watched as Maya took hold of the Queen of the desert land and took her life all in the pursuit of Power. The Queen was said to be the Avatar of twin goddesses, Inannna the goddess of life and beauty and Irkalla the goddess of death and life after death.

Whether her death had given Maya more mystic Power he knew not and didn't care to find out.

He set off north, with only a vague desire to go to his homeland but then it became his purpose as he moved quickly by night putting as much distance between him and the vampire tribe as possible.

The cold lands were inhabited by nomadic tribes, who moved from season to season, following the game. He had noted their movements for months now but it was one tribe that stayed during the worst of storms upon an icy ridge overlooking more icy planes and surrounded on one side by a dense forestland.

The Voin were a tribe of hunters, large men who knew how to keep and ride horses, their skills were adept at finding meat even in the freeze and their constitutions hardy enough to survive the cold.

He had heard of them from even the Southern tribes who feared them for their one hundred strong fierce warriors.

He was in the dense woodland, hunting for animals when he knew he was being watched. The girl appeared no more than sixteen years old yet her expression was marred with experiences beyond her age. She held the bow with steady arms, the arrow tip aimed at his heart. "Who are you?" She asked.

"I am Theorn." He shouted over to her.

She cocked her head, raising her ear to the sky as if listening for something and indeed he could hear clearer than she could the rustling in the wood, the mighty footfalls and scraping of body against tree, the sounds of a bear.

"From what clan do you come?"

"I do not come from this region: I have travelled from the south, beyond the rivers and snow."

His words seemed to touch her because she lowered her bow and a thoughtful look overcame her. Her slanted eyes seemed to gleam in the light of the sun, touched by some otherness that not even he could define. "You do not carry a weapon." She observed.

"I have no need of any." He said.

"How have you fed and clothed yourself in your travels?"

"With the hospitality of tribal hearths." He said.

"I will take you to the Tannak and let him decide what to do." And she did as she said, standing behind him with her hand on the hilt of a sica, her eyes shrewdly on his back as she guided him with abrupt instructions to the camp of the Voin.

"I am Theorn." He said. "What should I call you?"

"Ethīn." She said with a grudging note.

"I am of a glad heart at our meeting." He said wryly.

She grasped his arm to make him stop, she felt the hardness of his muscle but did not remark on it, one hand was still firmly upon her knife hilt. He looked beyond her, opening his senses, seeing only whiteness upon whiteness but smelling the approach of men.

"What have you got here, _verale_?" A tall hunter glared down at the girl. If Theorn thought her small before he thought her even smaller now in comparison to the hunter and of a different cast too.

"A prisoner for the Tannak." She said.

The hunter's eyes moved over Theorn who held his ground and his stare. He gave a curt nod and left. "Where is he going?"

"To fetch the Tannak." She said.

"I was not aware that I was your prisoner."

"You are hardly a guest." She pointed out. "No man traverses Byehely without a grim purpose."

Despite her words and hard tone she had saved him from an encounter with the bear, he supposed and he could see the kindness in that even if she had marched him to her camp and called him her prisoner.

The man returned and he indicated for Theorn to follow which he did with no real suspicion, confident of his strength to overpower them both. He could feel the warmth of the human camp from a distance and closed his eyes briefly to luxuriate in the fleeting feeling of heat and civilisation; his journey had been hard through the ice and snow.

It was not long before the Tannak arrived and he was unmistakable: marked by a tall frame, pretty features, and draped beneath the skin of a brown bear.

"Tannack." The man greeted his king with a deep incline of his head. "I found this man in the forest." Ethīn's part in this had already been forgotten and Theorn glanced at her but she was already on one knee, waiting patiently for instruction or content to be ignored.

The Tannack studied his face as if seeing beyond mere flesh and blood, Theorn had seen such a look before, on the Oracles and soothsayers of the southern lands. The Tannack seemed satisfied with what he saw or else he was mystified by Theorn's ethereal beauty and a close lipped smile brooked his lips. "Be welcome in my lands, traveller. I am King of the Voin, my name is Orech. What do you seek here in Byehliy?"

"Noble King, my name is Theorn Spearthrower, I've come seeking shelter for I am journeying further north." Theorn said falling to one knee.

"There is nothing further north." Orech said.

"But I am going nonetheless." He replied and got to his feet.

The Tannak laughed and his people inclined their heads in deference to him.

"Eat with us. Drink with us. You must have travelled the long hard road and it seems you are intent to travel an even longer and harder road." He said clapping a hand on Theorn's back and guided him toward the hearth fires of the camp.

The Voin were industrious and organised a collection of fires where meat roasted on wooden spits and the tribe sat around the largest flame eating and drinking and talking over one another. The Voin were indeed a ferocious people, hunters of wolves and bears they bore the skins like trophies as well as to keep warm.

Thierry stood watching, marvelling at the alcohol they guzzled as if it were water, it was alcohol fermented from grain and had a strong and unpleasant scent.

"I do not trust him." He heard Ethīn hiss in Orech's ear.

The Tannak's condescending laughter rumbled in his chest. "His face is pleasant enough. Ah, he is one man against hundreds, what harm can he be to us?"

Her black eyes met Theorn's from across the fire and he was startled by the clarity in them, she was not swayed by his fair face or mesmeric eyes. She bared her teeth at him in a fierce expression that seemed to say she knew what he was or that she was not deceived by him.

Ethīn moved to stand protectively close to the girl Katrine whilst Theorn took his seat of honour between the Tannak and Hanok Imre. Theorn turned to Imre to speak. "She is not of your blood." He observed remarking on the darkness of her hair against her porcelain pale face, the slant of her eyes glittering like black jewels in the semi-dark, she was by far the smallest of her tribe and she moved differently.

"Ethīn is _verale_." He said by way of explanation but Thierry did not know this word. He watched as Ethīn caught a young hunter's wrist and hissed an insult in his face.

"Some say she was raised by Vucari." Imre muttered taking a long draught of his drink.

"Vucari?"

"The wolf men of the wilderness."

Werewolves. He laughed out loud. Ethīn was fierce, there was a strange beauty in her features, so unlike the others but she was not magical.

Orech noted the path of his stare. "You are not the first foreigner to be curious of her." He said and glanced at him shrewdly. "A warrior from the south forced himself upon a Hanak of the Voin in the last great battle. She is a bastard, hearth-less, not true kin."

A warrior from the south…a man from the South Eastern lands, most likely of Möngke or Ch'in, Theorn surmised as he considered the strange girl whose curious eyes had never left her charge.

"And you allowed such a child to be born? To live among you? To take charge of your daughter?" He asked in wonder, had he found a king capable of such mercy? But his tone prickled Orech.

"She was cast out, as is our custom, into the wilderness as a babe." Imre interrupted from beside them as he chewed contemplatively on a piece of cured meat. "Left to the will of Morana, it was the will of the goddess that brought her back to us and we people of the Voin are mindful of our gods, friend. What gods do you worship?"

The flash of Maya's red lips and protean colour eyes lanced through his memories, the memory of blood on his hands, warm and sticky on his lips made him turn his eyes to the ground. "None that I care to talk about." He murmured.

Theorn turned his attention to the girl beside Ethīn, Katrine. Katrine was innocent though her appetites were stirred being on the cusp of womanhood; she looked so much like his kind and gentle Hana though she was perhaps taller, more slender, her hair a shade paler and her eyes unremarkable. He felt a hot stab of guilt and turned away from her too.

"Katrine is the Jewel of the Voin. She is my only daughter."

"And no sons?" He was barely aware he was asking as he was drawn back to stare at Ethīn who moved like a shadow against shadows, her dark eyes always on Katrine.

"None." Orech said with a sly smile. "Yet." He lifted his skin and took a giant gulp. Imre burst out into bawdy laughter and the flautist played a jaunty tune.

"Now listen, people of the Voin." He said and quiet fell immediately on the people. "This is a sad and joyful time for our people, our Jewel will be taken south of the Ider River and then west to meet with the the Great Jüz. Let us commiserate together the loss of our greatest treasure with more drink."

The Tannak lifted his cup and everyone held theirs, save Ethīn who was not permitted to bear one. "With the gift of my daughter we make peace with the Great Jüz."

Theorn murmured his enquiry to Imre who glanced at him. "The Voin and the Great Jüz of Argan are the mightiest tribes in these lands." Just as Hellewise's tribe had been before...But he had been among the the Great Jüz, the hordes of Chief Argan and knew them to be a harsh people, disciplined by the Kipchak Plain and its often unforgiving ground.

"It seems a shame to spend your most precious of treasures on a Kipchak tribe."

Imre laughed and drank deep of his cup.

As night fell and the people retired to their tents, Theorn waited until all were asleep before he crept into the Jewel's abode. He had no intention of harming her and was content to stare at Katrine as she slept peacefully looking so much like Hana and yet not at all. Beside her Ethīn was curled beneath her wolf skin, her expression disturbed in sleep; she trembled as if caught in the midst of a nightmare.

Night soon turned to day and Theorn rose from the guest's tent toward the site where the largest fire had been lit, it was ash and smoke now and the people of the Voin looked bleary eyed but cheerful enough.

Soon he was surrounded by the scent of roasting meat, Katrine was already seated by her father's side when Ethīn came out of her tent, dark circles coloured the skin beneath her eyes, and her mouth was grimly set though she had not had a drop.

She met his eyes from a distance and he froze feeling a sudden horror as if she knew what he was and what he had done.

* * *

_Present Day_

"Great line, Hugh." Soren said cynically from where he had been watching.

There was no denying now that something had happened, perhaps it was the remnants of Circe's magic, perhaps a trick of his mind but he had felt magic rise between he and the vampire girl. Jupiter barked ecstatically looking from one man to the other; his call for attention seemed to break the spell.

"It wasn't a line." Hugh murmured; his eyes remained on the path the vampire had taken. He was confounded, why was she working so hard to ward him away from her? She was a stranger…m_aybe she just doesn't like humans_, he thought.

"Do you know her then?" Soren asked.

Hugh shook his head, no.

"I think you should stay away from her man, she feels…strange."

"Not strange." Hugh said his voice soft, contemplative. "Sad."

* * *

Miss S


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

* * *

Hugh sat in an office staring at the Rorschach tests mounted on the wall and a litter of certificates the name Celeste H. Morgan printed clearly on each one. The woman herself was seated in front of him and he was trying to look at everything but her face and those bright, intense eyes that felt like needles boring into his skull. "I don't need to see a psychologist, Celeste." He murmured and inevitably his eyes moved toward hers.

She sat with her legs crossed at the knee, her legal pad balanced on the arm of her chair and the pen poised in her hand. "It's a safeguarding precaution, Hugh." Her blond eyebrow arched.

"I know." He said and a petulant sigh puffed passed his lips.

"That's a lovely dog."

Hugh ran his hand between Jupiter's eyes and the dog panted happily; he was sat at Hugh's feet. "He's still in training."

"I don't usually allow pets in the office."

"I'm grateful."

She nodded. It was as if she knew the significance the animal held to him and why not? Celeste was a Powerful psychic and practising witch.

Silence rose between them filled only by the dull buzz of the air conditioning unit, the dull murmur of people beyond the office door. "Do you want to tell me about it?" Celeste prompted.

"What's to tell?"

"Cat Devereux."

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "There's nothing to tell."

"You were sent out to recruit her."

"She made her choice."

"You got close to her."

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter now." In short Cat had chosen a vampire over him; he could see a tragic pattern emerging in his life of all the women he was attracted to ending up or becoming the victim of vampires.

His thoughts unsurprisingly turned to the vampire girl. She was rude: a human hater, a _vampire_. He wondered what allure vampires really had: sure they were beautiful but they were selfish and destructive. He was suddenly intensely angry with the girl and a knot formed between his brows and his lips tugged down in a frown.

"Hugh?"

Jupiter lifted his head and stood, moving to stand between Celeste to Hugh as they talked, eyes moving dubiously from one to the other.

"What about Lord Descouedres new guest?" Hugh asked petulantly folding his arms over his chest.

Celeste scribbled something down on her pad but maintained eye contact with him. "What about her?"

"Are you reviewing her psychologically?"

"You know I can't discuss other patients with you, Hugh."

"I know."

"This isn't like you." She chided. "You usually have something to share."

He sighed, leaning back in his seat, unfolding his arms. "I'm just tired."

"Preoccupied?" She suggested.

He nodded.

"Let's call it for now and I'll have Mercy arrange something for next week."

"I really don't think-"

Before he could complete his protest she leaned forward in her chair, hand reaching and landing on Jupiter's back, she ran the fur between her fingers and the dog endured it patiently. "Just let me know do my job so you can do yours, eh?"

* * *

Soren Sidabras came upon the vampire standing forlornly in the atrium, her fingers running through the leaves of the rosebush, her eyes cast to the ground, focused on a landscape inside her own being. He cleared his throat, once, twice; no response. He reached out and gently touched her shoulders and she started, her eyes all black, her expression one of surprise and, to his surprise, fear. "I didn't mean to startle you."

She looked him up and down, trying to assess whether he were a danger and yet he knew from the simmer of her Power moving gently against the surface of his skin that she was fast and strong enough to have fought him off. "What do you want?" She asked in the charming lyrical accent that had caught his attention before.

"My name is Soren." He said. "Soren Sidabrast."

"Eva." She said her eyes moving away. He had lost her attention already and cursed himself inwardly. _Not strange. Sad._ Hugh's words ran through his mind and he eased into a smile.

"Welcome to the Circle, Eva." Her lashes narrowed on her eye, leaving only a suspicious glittering slit. "I'm new to this also, relatively speaking." He continued conversationally. "I've been here for about six months since Winter Solstice."

She looked confused, distracted.

"It's hard isn't it?" He said softly and it captured her attention.

"I have not known peace for so long." She said and she was enchanting as sadness, distress, longing wove into her expression.

He gave a lopsided smile that others found endearing. "Well you've come to the right place."

She met his eyes and the fullness of her gaze was unsettling.

"What's your story?"

"Story?"

"Your tale of woe?" He prompted.

The ghost of a smile crossed her lips and she turned her face away once more. "I have so many of those, Soren Sidabrast." She murmured. "I couldn't tell you which one led me here."

"Perhaps all of them?" He suggested. Though he had been effected by her words, he had guessed she was old but now he knew she may very well be much older than he'd thought.

Her eyes flicked to his, the mystery of their depths intrigued him, they moved away from his face and toward a distant spot, he turned his head to follow the path of her gaze and saw Hugh in the distance trying to tame Jupiter with animated gestures and a rolled up cloth.

"Do you like animals?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you like animals?" He repeated.

"They've never treated me badly." She said and her eyes moved to his with such intensity that he was almost certain that she could see beneath his human skin and into the animal that lived there beneath the surface. He was a silver fox, his father's animal.

"I have to go." She said abruptly and turned away.

"Wait." He said and a moment later Hugh joined him, Jupiter panting noisily at his feet. "You just chased away one of the most beautiful women I've had the balls to talk to." He growled.

"You have no idea who she is." Hugh said eyes following the path the vampire had taken.

"And you do oh ye of many souls?" Soren mocked his brow arching.

"I think you should keep your distance." He said soberly.

Soren studied his friend's expression and there was the far off, intense look of someone who had seen too much and been through too much. Soren repressed a shudder and laid a hand on Hugh's shoulder. "I have a weakness for beautiful girls Hugh, they're truly my kryptonite."

One of Hugh's eyebrow's arched. "Isn't that how you got in trouble in the first place?"

Soren spread his hands. "Isn't that how most of us get in trouble?" Soren fired back.

Jupiter barked profoundly beside him.

* * *

_Around 1500 BC_

Ethīn and The Jewel set out when the sun was hot against the ice; before they departed the tribe had risen early for a breakfast feast and the ritual offering of a horse to Morana for a safe journey.

Ethīn had watched unable to deny the bubbling excitement as the Tannack performed the rite, slicing the throat of the animal and the steam that rose from the raw slit into the ether. The horse was butchered and cooked for their breakfast meat.

Orech presented her with the sacrificial blade still bright with the animal's blood and she concealed it in the horse skin sheath at her hip. This would be the blade that she would use to take her own life should she fail in her mission to deliver the Jewel.

They set off with the roar of the Voin against their backs and Ethīn sat straight and proud beneath her white wolf's fur gifted to her by Orech for this duty: her first official duty, a task that no other _verale_ could dream of.

The journey was steady with few mishaps though Katrine muttered beneath her breath, unhappy at the journey that chafed her thighs and strained her back.

The sun was middling as they approached the treeline before the Ider, she held up her hand for Katrine to stop. Ethīn moved forward, guiding her horse with her thighs, peering from beneath her wolf skin, clutching a yew spear in her hand.

"What is it?" Katrine asked staring into the white of the forest, seeing nothing but blackness and rays of white light playing across the dense line of trees.

"I'm not sure, Hakan." Ethīn murmured and dismounted.

She moved quickly through the trees, flushing out her prey and the creature was moving swiftly through the thicket, too quick to be a lumbering bear and too large to be a wolf. It was as she feared; it was the foreigner, Theorn and she soon had his back against a tree and her spear against his throat in quick succession of grasping and spinning.

She couldn't help but feel that he had let her catch him, just as he had before when he was caught between her arrow and the bear. "Why are you following us?" She hissed.

"I'm not following you." He said, his expression amused but not dangerously so. "But I thought, as we are going to same way that I might…keep an eye on you."

She glanced back at Katrine who was poorly concealed behind the withered branch of a tree.

"You cannot have her." Ethīn said levelly.

"It hadn't crossed my mind." He said lightly.

She dug the point of the spear into his skin until a thin trail of blood trickled down his throat. "I could take your life, stranger."

Theorn's face became fine, more canny and beautiful and his teeth elongated to needle points, eyes now solid silver as bright and mysterious as moonlight. Ethīn was not fazed by his transformation and pressed the iron tip deep into his throat without breaking the skin. "The Jewel is not for you." She said as if she sensed his deadly potential.

He laughed and she gritted her teeth in anger.

"Ethīn." Katrine called from his poor hiding place and she turned to glimpse her.

When she turned back, Theorn had gone.

"This wilderness is denizened with strange beasts who wear the faces of men." Ethīn murmured. "Tonight you sleep and I will keep watch, Hakan."

"But first we must eat." Katrine said.

Ethīn built a modest fire and left Katrine to stay warm by it, it was not yet the hour of the wolf's hunt and Theorn's presence in the forest would stave off the travels of the bear so Ethīn went to hunt.

It wasn't long before she tracked a reindeer bull and it was completely distracted in its pursuit of a tree's bark. She crept up on the horned beast, the sica flashing in one hand. She sprung on top of it and locked hands in the tangle of horns she wrestled it to the ground and brought the sica down on the beast's throat and its body shivered in the death throes.

She dragged the heavy body back to camp and by then it was dusk and Katrine glared at her, upset that it had taken so long for her to return.

Ethīn roasted flanks of reindeer meat over the fire which she poked and agitated for the flames to climb higher, she was mesmerised by the flames and smoky breath of the hearth.

"I am hungry, Ethīn." Katrine complained, though her hunger was true her boredom was more.

Ethīn took a hunk of meat run through with a sharp stick and offered it to Katrine. "Careful, it's hot." She said almost absently as she went to cut another sliver of meat for herself, a more modest cut than for her companion.

"Do you think the stranger follows us still?" Katrine asked with a shiver of pleasure.

Ethīn cast her eyes to the canopy of withered branches. "Doubtless he does." After the meal she spent hours in the dark listening and watching but there was no movement, an eerie stillness was upon the white wilderness and she allowed herself to sleep for a moment and when she woke the carcass of the animal she had slain had disappeared.

* * *

Miss S


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

* * *

_Present Day_

Eva knew her body was going into withdrawal; she had not fed since she had come to the West Coast and she had spent months travelling without partaking of a single sip of blood. An elder vampire could go months without having to feed.

But it was when the memories started flooding back, the chill breath of Byehliy, the roar of the hunters of the Voin, the slender grace of the Jewel, the gentle grey eyes…such eyes…she knew…

Between memories and the hunger her vision warped organic material into the potential of its functionary systems, the flowers in the square had mesmerised her, the patterns in the petals like veins the lush colour like blood.

All around the warmth of the living was pressing upon her, every minute was exquisite torture: talking to the boy Soren had been a trial and when the grey eyed boy had stood close she felt a tremble rock her body and provoke such profound hunger she knew she had to leave or...

She couldn't complete the thought.

One instant she was standing and the next falling and the next blackness.

* * *

Hugh didn't know what had possessed him to go back into the atrium, Jupiter's large shaggy white body was pressed to his leg, feeling his sense of urgency. The quicker he tried to walk the more awkward his gait and placing a hand on Jupiter's body he used the animal to help balance himself.

When he came across the vampire girl she was prone on the floor, dark hair fallen to veil her face, she looked pale like marble, and he noticed how pronounced her veins were.

There was a plummeting feeling inside his chest, and then a wellspring of concern and he sprung forward, falling to his knees beside her. Jupiter thrust his snout against Eva's neck and began to snuffle.

"Fetch Soren." He said and dog barked and loped off and for some inexplicable reason Hugh knew the dog would do as he asked.

Only moments later Lord Thierry burst into the atrium with startling all black eyes as if he too had felt the urgent call. Their eyes met for a brief instant before he came to carry Eva's body away and Hugh could not explain the sudden feeling of loss that fluttered in his chest like the wings of one of the rainbow Lorikeet's in the cage.

* * *

"Is she all right?" Hannah asked looking dubiously down at the petite vampire.

"She hasn't fed." Thierry said softly. "I should have seen the signs, her pallor, her fatigue…"

Hannah glanced at his expression, it was filled with fatherly concern and she felt the icy sliver of jealousy for Eva was very beautiful in repose; her raven black hair half covering her porcelain pale face, her oriental features delicately made. She looked sixteen she was certainly no more than eighteen when she was turned.

Hannah tried to imagine Thierry holding this girl, his strong slender fingers spanning against her shoulders, his mouth hovering over her throat, his lips touching the pulsing vein.

Had he loved Eva as he loved her now? She bit her lip to try and push back the encroaching insecurities. "I'll fetch some help."

Thierry grasped her hand before she left and looked up into her eyes, a wealth of emotion in his and gratitude was not the least of them. "Thank you."

She nodded and left the room.

* * *

Hugh was sitting in the mess room, Jupiter half sprawled on top of him and he was petting him gently. He glanced up when Hannah walked into the room, her eyes moving over everything but not seeing anything.

"Is everything okay?" Hugh asked, his heart thundering with panic.

"I'm looking for donors." Hannah said. "Blood donors."

Hugh motioned toward the four girls hovering behind her, volunteer donors. "How many do you need?"

"A minimum of five would ensure the safety of all, Thierry will be overseeing the feed."

"Then I'll go." He said and pushed the dog off of him.

"Hugh." She grasped his wrist as he passed her. "You don't have to."

"I want to." He assured her and followed her through the winding halls. He had volunteered twice at least to give blood, he had never felt it was a pleasant experience and the vampires who had drank from him were always fiercely apologetic.

They entered the room and the curtains were drawn the only light from a tiffany lamp that sent a kaleidoscope of colour across the four poster bed. Hugh watched as Thierry glanced up at the first girl and beckoned her forward. "From the wrist." He instructed softly.

The woman sat on the edge of the bed and angled her wrist for the vampire who laid there. Hugh could feel his heart jump into his throat, as his eyes moved over the girl and there was that faint nagging feeling.

He had to swallow down the wellspring of concern, it had sprung unbidden and irrepressible and could do nothing but press his lips into a thin line and observe.

"Drink, Eva." Thierry urged softly.

Eva reared up as if lifted by marionette strings, her body was working outside of her consciousness, Hugh had seen this happen, not unlike the actions of a Ghoul.

Eva struck like serpent, her fangs embedded deep into the flesh of the girl's wrist, the girl cried out in shock and pain and then her lips suckled on the wound she had made, drawing in ecstatic gulps more and more blood until the girl was faint.

"Enough." Thierry said, his voice gentle but firm and he had to prize the women apart.

The feeding went on until Hugh was next and he sought out Hannah's face and she gave him a small smile and an encouraging nod. He moved slowly toward the bed, trying to even out his gait as he approached.

"Alright?" Thierry asked and he nodded but had to take a deep breath before he perched on the edge of the bed.

Eva's eyes were opening now, her lips ruby red with blood and her faculties returning a bit at a time. Her head turned to one side, her lashes parted and dark glittering eyes caught his and it was like a spear going through him.

"No." Eva said drawing herself as physically far away from him as she could go; crouched against the head board cringing like a beaten animal.

Hugh looked baffled, staring from Eva to Thierry and back again.

"Why did you bring him here?" She shrieked.

"Eva, calm down." Thierry said throwing his hands up trying to appease her, trying to approach her and take hold of her limbs. Her eyes were wide, wild and her sharp teeth were cutting into her lower lip making blood run across her chin.

"Ethīn." He said sharply and his hands closed around her upper arms and her eyes focused on him for an instant and she fell unconscious. Thierry had knocked her unconscious with a psychic punch and the wave of that Power affected Hugh and he stumbled to his feet, a hand flying to the throbbing vein in his temple.

Thierry slowly turned to glance at him. "I think it's best if you leave."

"What wrong with her, Thierry?" Hannah was asking as Hugh fled the room. "Who does she think Hugh is?"

"I don't know." He whispered in reply and he laid Eva gently back on the bed.

"That name. Ethīn. Is that her true name?"

He nodded. "Ethīn Iceborn, _verale_ of the Voin."

"She's very old, isn't she?"

"Over three thousand years."

Hannah left them in search of Hugh and found him leaning against the wall in the outer corridor breathing shakily. "I'm sorry, Hugh." She said patting his hand gently. "I'm sure she didn't mean anything, she was probably mistaking you for someone-"

"What if she wasn't?" He asked gently.

"What?"

"I feel as if I know her, Hannah." He said and grasped her hand back. "I feel as if…"

"It is possible." Hannah said. "You know it is." Hugh was a wakened Old Soul and knew much about his past lives, unlike Hannah, he could tap into the rich resource of his memories.

"But I…" He trailed off again shaking his head. "I don't remember her but I know her. I know her. She's dangerous, Hannah."

* * *

Miss S


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

* * *

Sometimes dreaming and remembering felt the same. _Ethīn. _Ethīn. "Ethīn." He spoke the name, it echoed through the eternity of his soul. _Ethīn._

Hugh was lying on his bunk and had long drifted into the sensation between dreaming and waking before the scent of horses and men raised up around him and the icy chill of a distant land embraced him like an old familiar lover.

_Around 1500 BC_

He was a young man of seventeen springs, strong of limb and fair of face: his skin was sun-kissed, his hair was blond and curled, his chin was dusted with a modest spattering of fine golden hair but he had not yet grown his manly beard.

He was Solon, son of Nicomeades King of Bythinia. Solon was a proud son, his father had conquered many peoples increasing the richness of his kingdom, to some he was a King to be obeyed and to others a warlord to be feared.

On the advent of his seventeenth name day he had been given the robes of office: the duties of an emissary and he travelled from his father's kingdom in the west to the distant north eastern land of the Kypchak Plains where three tribes lived and a further tribe beyond the Ider had offered them an alliance.

It was at this time, a little after Thargelia the celebration of the hunter goddess, that he had arrived among the Great Jüz, the strongest of all the mighty horde of warriors in the north eastern lands, and taken in by Chief Argan to discuss a treaty between them and the reaching arm of Nicomeades.

Argan was a formidable man, large and powerful in his frame but also loud and hospitable. Argan led ten tribal fathers in the Great Jüz, it was the largest of the three jüz that occupied the Kypchak Plains. "All tribes of Kypchak arise from the three sons of Ata." Argan explained. "We descend from Ata's firstborn Argyn and we are chief amongst jüz."

Whilst Solon was there to entreat the jüz to peace with his father's kingdom and trade in livestock and warriors; Argan was embroiled in the negotiations of peace with a rival tribe, who lived beyond the great river, known as the Voin.

"They are a fair people." Argan explained with a belly laugh. "I have had an eye for the daughter of the Tannack since she was this high."

"You will unite the tribes then?"

His expression turned stone cold, his eyes shrewd and Solon saw for the first time, the formidable warrior and statesmen and knew this man was no mere savage. "The Voin are a bastard remnant of a people who fled a terrible destruction; they are not of the plains, they are new to the ice and we only tolerate their existence."

"But you are to take one of their women to wife." Solon said in an effort to understand. "You wish to be at peace with them, yes?"

"Son of Nicomeades, why don't you accompany my men to retrieve the Jewel? Yes, an excellent idea." And so with those words and a chill in his bones he was riding amidst a group of young men, each one an accomplished hunter. They laughed together and extended their animal skins filled with the strange fermented milk named _kumis_.

Solon drank until the liquid curled warm in his belly and brought twin spots of red on his cheeks, his vision began to blur with the strength of the drink. Their progress toward the Ider river was slow, the ground was hard and the climate became increasingly cold and not even the skins of the animal gifted to him by Chief Argan could stave off the chill but the _kumis_ helped.

One of the riders whistled and the hunters came to a stop, Solon steadied his mare beneath him and he saw two silhouettes against the whiteness. Two women approached on horseback, each different from the other like the sun from the moon; he could not decide at first who was the prospective bride for Chief Argan for each was lovely in their unique way.

He dismounted with the hunters, lingering back to observe the exchange; his eyes moved over the smaller of the two women finding something in her that was strong, vulnerable and, irrepressibly compelling.

Both girls had dismounted with the ease and grace of those born to the horse, the dark girl stood in front of the pale girl like a shield. He marvelled at how they were dressed: the fabric of their clothes stitched with coarse twine and hidden beneath layers of animal hides, white and grey wolf pelts.

The dark haired girl clutched a spear in one hand, her eyes moved over the group of men calculating their number, strength and threat. "Name yourselves." She demanded.

He had never seen features such as hers: slanted eyes dark and glittering, delicate nose, and lips as full and tempting as fruit, her hair was as black as jet and fell straight like a raven's wing reflecting pale highlights of light that bounced off of the snow.

Despite her slightness she carried herself with the bearing of a seasoned warrior and yet he could not place her name day as many more than his own.

The eldest of the hunters stood forward, he knelt with his forearm held across his chest. "I am Desya, kinsmen of Chief Argan. I have come to escort the Jewel of the Voin from the Ider to the Great Jüz."

"Katrine bat Katr of the Voin has an escort." The dark girl said coldly.

Desya looked up to study her, his eyes narrowed into glittering lines of disdain. "What is your name woman?"

"This is Ethīn Iceborn." The pale girl said.

Solon watched Ethīn grit her teeth as the tall and graceful girl blinked and blushed prettily before the hunters. Though the girl was not without her charm, she was not as curious as her slight companion Ethīn. "I am Katrine, daughter of Tannak Orech."

"It is an honour." Desya said but it was clear Ethīn was not impressed by his deference.

Ethīn's eyes moved over the men of the Argansi, her eyes eventually met his and he was snared by her gaze. "You are not one of the jüz." She said and he could see his reflection in her eyes, a lithe, blonde man with the solid grey eyes, as different from the hunters as she was from Katrine.

The corners of his lips twitched into a smile. "I am Solon, son of Nicomeades King of Bythinia." He bowed from the waist.

"Do not waste your bows and fine words on that one." One of the hunters murmured, loud enough for Ethīn to overhear. "She is _verale_, beneath your courtesy."

Solon's head cocked to the side, his eyes on her face, his expression soft. "No one is beneath courtesy." He said and the hunter made a noise in the back of his throat before he moved away.

"The hour grows late to return to the plains, we will set up our tents a little ways from here and on the first breath of morning we will take the Jewel to Chief Argan." Desya announced.

"Is it just you and her?" Solon found himself asking, the thought of two lone women vulnerable to the elements and beasts was appalling; no woman would be permitted to travel unescorted in his father's city.

"I am The Jewel's protector." Ethīn said in a tone used to having to defend her worth and he felt distressed that he might have offended her. He reached out in an effort to placate her, to let her know that he meant her no ill will but she spun away from his reaching hand, her brows drew together and her nose wrinkled in disgust.

He was dismayed at her reaction, wondering what life was like for these people that no honour was paid to a guest and no courtesy given to a woman.

He moved away, dazed.

* * *

The hunters of the jüz erected their tents quickly and capably leaving Ethīn to labour at her own tent and again despite her size she worked efficiently and without protest.

Solon could not explain the strange feeling curled in the pit of his stomach, the desire to gravitate toward the girl. He tried to occupy himself with setting up the camp but he was not needed nor did the men of the jüz hurry to include him.

There were ritual formalities to be observed for the rest of that day and he was asked to wait on the outer rim of the camp, bearing a flaming torch as the twilight descended. He watched with interest as the two camps faced one another, speaking ceremonial words that were beyond his range of hearing and then exchanging weapons over the camp fire.

His eyes moved from Katrine who stood at the centre of the ceremony to Ethīn who was her slight, and watchful shadow. Once their eyes met and he looked away guiltily feeling the strange thundering in his chest.

"Come, Solon." Desya called out to him. "Now we celebrate."

The skins of _kamis _ were passed around and the hunters drank deep until they were all drunk. Ethīn was careful to now allow Katrine more than a sip and partook of none herself.

Solon drank and the more he drank the further the cold feeling receded and his sight was hazy round about. Sometime that night the women departed to their tent and sometime later the men moved to theirs. Not knowing which was his own he stumbled aimlessly toward the nearest and was stopped by Desya strolling out.

"You may be next if you like." Desya said with a wide grin, his chest bare to the elements and his hand clutching a skin with more _kamis_. Curious, Solon went inside and what he found made him freeze in horror.

Ethīn was on her knees, her clothes torn and falling about her, her jaw darkening with a bruise. There were tears in her eyes and she turned her head to one side to spit.

She didn't seem to notice him; he had come upon her trapped in a moment of profound grief. He crouched beside her and reached out, his fingers alighting on her knee and her breath hitched with tears. "I won't harm you." He whispered and withdrew from her, appalled of the thoughts and temptation that had passed through his mind. "I would never-"

"I am _verale_." Her voice was thick with emotion, raspy from a bruised throat. What she couldn't bring herself to explain was that he would be within his right to use her as he wished, that her desires played no part in his pleasures

His eyes filled with tears. "No." He said.

She gathered the wolf skin to conceal her breasts "It is the will of Morana." She whispered.

"No." He said and surged forward to grasp her by the arms and in doing so the world around them pulsed and exploded in a meteoric shudder of light.

"Solon." She whispered his name in the ephemeral sparkling place that was his mind. She was surrounded by a feeling of warmth and reverence for life. In the grim world of ice and metal she knew for if but a moment peace.

* * *

Miss S


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

* * *

Eva roused herself from such dreams that were no dreams at all but memories resurfacing from the silt of her mind. Unkempt, hair mussed, her clothes wrinkled she moved silently to the adjoining sitting room drawn by Thierry's presence.

Thierry was sitting on a Queen Anne chair, one ankle resting on a knee and a book spread on his lap.

"Good morning." Thierry said his gentle voice was a comfort and welcome her into the room.

"Morning." She replied.

His dark eyes moved over her carefully and seemed pleased with what he saw, she looked more lucid than she had in the days passed. "You've been waiting for me." She said and Thierry's lips bowed in a smile.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better." She said and it was true, she felt more herself with what blood she had taken and she had not partaken in such a long time. "May I sit?"

"Please." He said and she sat on the floor at his feet, her head leaning against the arm of his chair. He was not surprised by this, having been used to this from their days spent together. He set his book to one side, staring down at the dark crown of her head. "Why were you starving yourself, Eva?"

She glanced up at him all at once startled and sad. "It wasn't by choice." She whispered. "I just…I wasn't..." She shook her head, unable to articulate all she felt or what events had led her to this point. That would take time and courage neither of which she felt she had.

"You scared that boy."

"What boy?" Her head moved away.

"Hugh."

She shrugged as if it meant little to her. "Is that his name?" She said resting her chin upon her knees.

He was content for them to sit in silence whilst her mind was filled with the sense of the boy...Hugh. His scent still clung to the fabric of her clothes; the image of his eyes going wide, his expression frightened and confused played on her mind. Even now she could tell he was nearby.

"Eva?" Thierry's voice intruded on her thoughts.

"Hmmm?"

She lifted her head to look up at him.

"How did you come to be like this?" He whispered.

The slow burn of tears blocked her throat and prickled mercilessly behind her eyes. "There's so much to tell."

"I am willing to listen."

She did not seem ready to explain and he looked upon her with enduring sympathy, something born of many long years. She forced a smile to the corners of her lips; she stood and went to the window overlooking the expanse of lawn. "I never thought to see a day where vampire and shape shifter and..." She saw the human, Hugh, playing with his large white dog.

"What's wrong?" Thierry asked.

"For centuries I was in a place where everything was calculated: every motion, every word…I don't remember what it is to be anything but what they made me."

"They?"

"The Court, the Houses, Maya."

He came to stand beside her and laid his hand on her shoulder and stared out of the window at Hugh and Jupiter running around the lawn.

Eva put a hand atop Thierry's unspeakably grateful for his presence, his quiet patience. "I have been afraid of everything for so long I can't remember when I was ever free."

"You are free now." He said.

Tears gathered in her eyes blurring the image of the young man and his dog.

Silence fell between them again and Eva's expression sobered. "Is it true that Maya is gone?" As if she still held a hope or dread that the Queen was still alive and in hiding.

She turned to face him and his eyes moved away from hers. "Yes." He said.

"Was it you?"

"No." He replied flatly. "Though it should have been."

"Then it was your woman." Eva deduced from his expression. "She does not look strong enough to have overpowered the Queen of vampires."

"Looks can be deceiving."

"Yes." She said with a ghost of smile. "Of course."

"And what will the Court do next?" He wondered aloud.

She drew her shoulders together in a shrug. "Doubtless they will find a way to carry on."

He studied her expression intensely, searching for a sign of something, anything that would reveal her intent. "Do you grieve for Maya?"

She shrugged again. "Do you?"

"Yes." He said. "I wish it all could have turned out another way."

"That is the story of our lives, is it not?"

He couldn't help but smile. "It would be pleasant to sit by you again. Can we just sit for a while?"

"If you'd like."

"My mind is too filled with the past these days." She murmured and closed her eyes.

* * *

It was night, a chill was in the air.

The recreation room was deserted save for Soren, Hugh and Jupiter. Hugh was idly petting the dog who was content to nap across his lap and Soren's eyes flicked up to the ceiling, often and impatiently. "What do you think they're doing up there?" He asked.

"Hmm?" Hugh glanced at him distractedly.

"Lord Descouedres and the vampire, Eva?"

Hugh's eyes moved away and he concentrated intently on stroking the space between the dog's eyes. "Talking." He replied flatly.

"For an Old Soul you have a flat imagination, Hugh. If I had a few hours alone with her, I'd-"

"I don't want to hear it." Hugh interrupted softly.

Soren's brows arched. "You're so touchy; don't tell me you don't find her attractive."

Hugh stood up abruptly and Jupiter raised his head sharply, tongue lolling as he panted, eyes rolling to Hugh with intense interest. "I'm going to take the dog for a walk." He said.

He strode through the room and Jupiter trotted beside him.

_Why couldn't it have been Cat?_ The thought was there, fully formed in his consciousness and as soon as it materialised he ducked his head in shame. He had been in love with Cat Devereax but she was by no stretch of the imagination his soulmate.

How could the small, cantankerous vampire have any part of his immortal soul? How could she possibly understand him?

He was an old soul, more wizened than most, but he was still just a teenager and the rebellious seed in his soul didn't want to accept that destiny had chosen for him someone he wouldn't have chosen himself.

The thought of Eva and Thierry together made his blood boil. He burst onto the patio, expelling a harsh breath of air.

"How's your new girlfriend, Hugh?" Ash's drawl startled him and he spun round to face the vampire. His mind had been filled with Eva's face, beautiful exotic features marred by distress, her dark eyes large and glittering as they had met his with a spark of intimate knowledge.

Ash's words were a reflection of Soren's and Hugh felt his heckles raise, his lips opened, his mind reaching for an insult but Ash crouched down instead. "She's scrubbed up well, huh? Haven't you flea bag?" He said and petted Jupiter awkwardly.

_Oh. _He had been talking about the dog and had no inkling of the tumult inside. "It's male, Ash." He said flatly.

"Oh." Ash said and stood, the dog was happy to leave him and re-joined Hugh with a blithe bark.

"I need some fresh air." Hugh muttered.

"Don't wonder off too far tonight." Ash called after him, his tone deeply amused. "It's a full moon." Hugh stormed angrily toward the gentle orange light of the garden, Jupiter running around him circles.

* * *

Thierry read from _Metamorphoses _his low rumbles of voice was hypnotising and recounted the myth of Europa who was kidnapped by Zeus who had transformed into a white bull.

Eva's memories were mired with a different type of kidnap, she put fingertips to her own lips as if she could still taste the cloth that had bound her screams.

_Around 1500 BC_

They took Ethīn whilst she slept and bound her mouth with cloth to disguise her screams of rage. They tied her wrists painfully tight, any tighter and her bones would have snapped and all the while she glared at Desya who grinned at her salaciously.

"It is a pity I could not test the quality of your foreign cunt, Ethīn, though your mouth was sweet." He said. "But know that a beast of the wilderness may have such a pleasure."

Another hunter cast the carcass of a white furred hare beside her, the insides already rotting and stinking terribly. She tried to chew through the bitter cloth, tears of anger and frustration fell from her dark eyes and Desya laughed harder. He knelt, covering his fingers with the insides of the carcass and then smeared her cheeks and forehead with the blood and gore of the animal.

"This is how you treat _verale_ of the Voin." Desya said to Solon.

Her eyes moved to Solon and his eyes were crystal clear grey, his golden curls fell messily into his eyes, she could see the ring of white as he watched her, her terror was reflected in his face. The jüz hunters had his wrists holding him immobile.

"Pray Morana's wolves take you tonight, Ethīn." Desya roared with laughter and struck a hard blow to her head and she toppled sideways into unconsciousness.

She didn't know how long she was out but when she woke it was to Theorn removing the gag from her mouth and she stirred to life, her eyes glittering venomously. "The Jewel has been taken prisoner." Her voice was brittle and husky. "Their camp is beyond the ridge, we must rescue her."

He glanced at the snowy ridge. "In time."

Ethīn struggled in her bonds that had her wrists secured together.

He used the snow to bathe her face though she tried to resist him, squirming from his touch.

Theorn wondered at the diminutive woman who had survived the night shrouded in animal carcass and yet she had not been set upon by wolves. He could hear them, the wolves were in the forest, their breath tempered, their eyes bright as they watched but yet they had not moved to take Ethīn to the arms of Morana.

Perhaps Imre's tale was right, perhaps she had been raised by werewolves.

He leaned over her, she froze suddenly aware of how close he was and she was vulnerable to all the dangers she sensed in him. He reached round to the rope that bound her wrists and snapped the fibres with one tug.

"Thank you." She said but her tone was not grateful.

It took time to convince her not to march toward the camp, Theorn insisted on a plan and so they crouched in the snow and Ethīn drew a map of the encampment. "They will be deep in their drink and should not suspect an assault, we can circle their camp and enter here from the rear of the little tent." She stabbed the stick in the snow to indicate the point of entry.

"Or from above." He added. She stared at him but there was no hint of mocking in his face.

"They should all die for this treachery." Ethīn said softly. "But spare the Bythinian Hanok."

Theorn searched her eyes, her expression and as if satisfied with something he had found there he gave a nod of affirmation.

They moved out. She noted how curiously light of foot Theorn was, his feet did not thrust into the snow like her feet did even though she was the more delicately made of the two.

It took half a day's journey on foot to reach the camp and it was, as Ethīn had surmised, erected in the crude sketch in the snow, the point of entry was clear and their only advantage was the element of surprise. The hunters were drinking from their skins as predicted and this would help too; Ethīn's eyes tried to pick up sight of Katrine but there was nothing but men and the dull glow of a fire just starting to live.

"Why are you helping me? Do you have such affection for her?" She murmured eyes sliding to Theorn who was crouched beside her; he went very still and a sadness settled on him, she averted her eyes. "When we save her I will deliver her back to my Tannack." She informed him.

"As you wish." Theorn murmured.

She moved quickly into the camp, feeling only an intense rage and thirst for revenge but more than this, she had vowed to keep the Jewel safe and was intent to find her also.

It was not long before she came upon them: Desya's body resting between Katrine's thighs, her skirts raised high, his hand across her mouth. "Desya." Ethīn called and he froze.

Katrine sat up, tears streaked her cheeks and her mouth parted to scream. From above, Theorn swooped down and tackled Desya to the ground.

Ethīn grasped an axe, the hunters used it to take branches for the fire and left it laying idly by, with a battle cry Ethīn swung the axe into the nearest hunter and he fell dead to the ground. She had to retrieve her axe from the carcass, putting a boot on the face of the man to pull it out.

She was swinging and chopping at anything that dared come near her and brought down two further warriors who both underestimated her strength and speed.

Three fallen hunters, Ethīn struggled to remember how many had made up their party. The blood lust was upon her and saw movement in the corner of her eye. She went running, ululating as she went with her weapon ready to swing.

"Ethīn." Her name on his lips seemed to penetrate the red haze.

Solon looked up at her with horror and she froze with the axe held high above her head, she began to tremble, her own blood thirst sickened her and the axe fell from her hands and she fell forward to her knees.

"I'm sorry." She murmured.

"We must go." Theorn urged.

Her eyes met Solon's whose were wide with fear. "I'm sorry, Hanok." She whispered. Ethīn roused her limbs and limped toward Theorn leaving Solon staring dumbly at her back.

"Take Katrine and go." Theorn said. His eyes were as bright as stars, and human blood smeared his chin. With the terrible beautiful mouth he growled. "Leave."

Ethīn helped Katrine to her feet, the girl was in a faint and could not command her limbs; Ethīn half walked, half dragged her across the ground until she could not go on and laid Katrine gently on the new fallen snow beneath the curve of a great tree. Ethīn reached shakily for her sica and crouched in front of her charge scanning the darkness for her enemies.

* * *

Miss S


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

* * *

"Oh, you scared me." Hannah said her hand flying to her chest as her heart thundered in fright.

"My Lady." Circe inclined her head deeply. The woman was a head taller than Hannah, and was cloaked in her ceremonial robe having come from the Circle meeting.

"Are you looking for me?"

Circe smiled and nodded. "Yes, as it happens, I've come to ask you about our new guest, Eva Vasilia."

Hannah's good humoured expression fell. "What about her?"

"May we speak in private?"

Hannah nodded and led Circe to a private officer, she perched on the edge of a desk and Circe took a seat in the leather client chair, her slender fingers running up and down the armrests. "Do you trust her?" Circe asked without looking up.

Hannah nervously spun her wedding band on her finger. "I don't know her."

"But you know she's dangerous." Circe said with a peculiar smile as their eyes met. "She has come from the Vampire Court and we don't know why."

"She's Thierry's friend." Hannah protested weakly.

"Friend?" Circe's brow arched, her lips stretching again in a smile and the worm of doubt burrowed into Hannah's soul.

"I trust my husband." Hannah said fists clenching.

"Yes, trust your husband but what about her?" Circe's shoulders drew together in a graceful shrug. "Have you even spoken to her?"

Hannah shook her head from side to side.

"I've heard rumours and I thought I'd talk to you before I approach your husband and you may not like what news I have to report."

"Please." Hannah said motioning for her to continue.

Circe leaned forward conspiratorially, the silence and moment stretched for perfect effect "I have heard that Eva has come to make Thierry her King so that she might be Queen of the Vampire Court."

Hannah exhaled sharply as if the wind had been knocked from her. "That's ridiculous."

"Is it?"

"I…"

"Think about it, my lady." Circe said reaching forward to grasp her hands and squeeze her fingers. "I don't say these things to offend you I'm merely concerned about you and Lord Thierry." And now Hannah shared her concern and he kernel of jealousy sprouted in her heart.

"I don't know if what I've heard is true." Circe said lightly. "I was hoping there would be a quiet way to determine these things."

"How?" Hannah asked.

"Here, my Lady." She materialised a vial in her hand, it gleamed a lush shade of purple in the light, she placed it into Hannah's palm. "Add this to the blood, it has been bespelled so that any who drink of it will tell truth."

"You want me to take this to her?" She asked staring down at the contents of her hands.

Circe nodded.

"I don't want to be part of any plot." She whispered.

"It is the only way to be absolutely sure of her intentions." Circe pressed.

"I trust my husband." Hannah said her voice full of conviction.

"But do you trust Eva Vasilia?"

* * *

Eva felt uneasy, not only was her apatite rearing again, she had the distinct feeling of a nearing danger, it felt like the gathering of oppressive dark clouds, a density in the air that had nothing to do with the weather.

She wanted to leave Thierry's house and yet never leave it; she was frightened of moving forward and her mind was constantly dwelling on those days, the last days of her mortality.

She heard a light footfall, the bedroom door opened and closed and more footfalls of someone moving in the room with her. "My lady?" Eva's voice erupted in the dark and Hannah flinched pausing in mid step. She tuned to see Eva's petite frame silhouetted against the drawn curtains.

"I thought you were sleeping." Hannah said.

"I can't sleep." Eva murmured in her melodious accent turning from the window to stare at the girl.

"Would you like to take a walk?"

A trickle of pure fear moved through her and she deflected that question with another. "Why are you here, my Lady?"

"I came to bring you this." She lifted the jug of dark liquid. "I understand it's not the same as feeding from the vein but it might curb the pangs of hunger."

"You have my sincere gratitude." Hannah could not deny her sudden fear; she knew Eva was using vampire techniques, her voice purring, and seductive curling like warm treacle in Hannah's belly.

Eva knew that Hannah didn't need to bring her meal for her: it was beneath the wife of a Night Lord and a revered Old Soul. Hannah lay the decanter down on the side table.

"I will not upset you to ask why you took her life." She said and Hannah went tense, without having to ask she knew Eva was speaking of Maya and of course Eva being three thousand years old would have known Maya perhaps as intimately as Thierry had. "You have my gratitude on this as well."

"Gratitude?" Hannah asked miserably. "Please don't thank me for what I've done."

"But I have and you will ever have my gratitude, Lady Hannah. Maya was a cruel and thoughtless Queen, she deserved her fate; there are many who would think so even among your people."

"And now that she's…gone. What next?" Hannah asked thinking of Circe's words.

"Doubtless they will appoint a new Queen." She said her eyes elsewhere as she spoke.

"Or King."

"The patriarchs of the modern vampire world may try." She said with a mocking smile. "But the elders will appoint a Queen from among the elders; just a reminder of our spell casting heritage."

Hannah turned round to peer at her through the darkness. It was unnerving to be in a room with a vampire that you didn't quite trust. Hugh's words…_she's dangerous_…and Circe's arched brow flitted through her mind, though Eva hadn't moved from her perch nor threatened her in any way.

Eva made no move to touch the blood.

"Won't you have a drink?" Hannah prompted.

Eva stared forlornly at the decanter.

"Thierry and I were companions for two hundred years and he spoke often of you to me." She confided. "It comforted me back in those days to know of the great devotion that could exist between two people that transcended the bonds of birth right."

Silence fell between them; though Hannah's heart thundered. "You were a hunter in life."

"He told you?" Hannah nodded knowing the vampire would see her clearly in the darkness. "I hunted for my tribe though if they knew it was my hand that slew the animal they would never have eaten the meat of it, thinking it to be cursed; such is the life for a _verale_."

"Life was hard then." Hannah conceded because she too knew the intricate politics of ancient cultures that could bind a person.

"Also now." Eva said with a resonating note of sorrow.

"Yes." Hannah said and licked her lips nervously.

"You do not need to fear me, my lady." Eva said breathily, as if Hannah's fear excited her and she knew fear was like an aphrodisiac to a predator and despite her size and comely appearance Eva was certainly a predator. "You wouldn't fear Thierry now, would you?"

"Thierry's never taken a man's life." Hannah said knowing what they called him behind his back, The Saint. He'd never killed anyone and would never do so.

"I held to Thierry's rules for many, many years: glutting on the blood of animals. If I fed from a mortal it was from the wrist, rarely the throat, and no more than a sip, a few dozen mortals moving like a bee amongst flora and one can move about without note."

"I find it hard to believe."

"Do you?" Eva laughed.

"You are…dark, Eva. I feel danger when I'm with you." She felt as she had felt with Maya, the unease making her shoulders taut and lips purse; Eva could well have been in the company of Maya and the fierce men and women of her tribe.

"Well I am dangerous." Eva conceded with dark amusement. "But then I am a vampire."

"Yes." Hannah laughed nervously.

"I do not seek to live that life anymore but I am not without blood on my hands."

"Why have you come here?"

Eva went silent and Hannah wondered if the aged being had come to seek a quiet revenge for the death of Maya or perhaps she was fleeing her own dangers that were too painful to speak about. Eva did not answer and Circe's words were like venom written upon Hannah's heart,_ Eva has come to make Thierry her King_.

Hannah perched on the edge of the bed working up the courage to ask her question and Eva's dark eyes turned to her patiently waiting for her to speak. "Were you Thierry's lover?"

* * *

Miss S


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

* * *

_Around 1500 BC_

Ethīn didn't know when she passed into sleep but when she woke, Theorn knelt over Katrine close enough to kiss or touch her with his teeth but he did neither. Ethīn hesitated to let him know she was awake.

She heard a growl in the semi-distance, her eyes cracked open and she saw the wolves jaw's slathered in blood. "The Bythinian?" She asked and her throat suddenly thick with grief.

Theorn glanced at her and slowly shook his head from side to side, Solon was dead; the wolves had taken him and what remained of the fallen hunters, that was what his eyes said without his lips moving at all.

Her hand reached through the snow to her sica, her fingers curled around its handle. "I can't let you have her." She said with a measure of regret that she would have to fight him. She was exhausted, cold, desolate at the thought of almost having lost the Jewel.

With a wicked swing Ethīn hit Theorn with the butt of the knife, he didn't move from the path of her swing and he fell sideways but was not unconscious, he glared up at her, blood trickling from his temple. "She's dying." He hissed.

"Her wound is shallow." She said. "She will live."

"And what will you do, take her back to her father? In the state you're in you will both be taken by the beasts or hunters from the jüz who have ventured far enough north."

"We will return to Byehliy. She has no choice." Ethīn said though her teeth. "Her will is her father's."

"And yours?"

"My will is my Tannck's."

"You would deny her a clean death?"

They circled one another. Ethīn's grip was white knuckled on the axe, she knew he could easily best her but she was ready to give her life for the Jewel of the Voin. "She must go back."

He stared at her hard and in silence for a few moments. "Then let me help you."

Those words were unexpected and most welcome and the weight of exhaustion visited upon her, the sica fell from her grasp and she dropped her eyes. "Yes."

Soon Katrine was wrapped in all the furs that Ethīn could gather; she even baked rocks in a small fire and tucked it around the bed she had made for the Jewel. Theorn watched her seemingly untouched by the chill, Ethīn, however, was shivering, having relinquished all but one layer of cloth for the sake of preserving Katrine's warmth.

"We should lay together for warmth." She said, teeth chattering, her lips turning a peculiar shade of purple.

He glanced at her his expression uncertain at first but he gathered her to him, she seemed so small and delicate against him and he wanted to impart her warmth but he was not a warm creature.

They lay together for hours before she spoke.

"What are you?" She asked softly.

It was no surprise and yet he always dreaded this moment. "You know that I'm not like you?"

She nodded against his shoulder.

"Do you fear me?"

"You could have killed me or left me to die as the hunters did." She whispered and then angled her head to look up into his dark eyes. "You saved me and the Jewel. I cannot fear the creature that has done such a thing."

"I have been on this earth for a long time." He said.

"I would like to know what is beyond the snow." She said and listened to him tell his tale of witches, spells and blood drinkers.

* * *

When she had finished reliving the memory of the most intimate time she had lain beside Theorn tears slid down Hannah's cheeks, and the droplets were as bright as diamonds.

Eva put a hand to the mortal's face and felt Hannah shrink beneath her touch. "You remind me of her: Katrine." She murmured as she stroked her cheeks, fingertips blotting the tears and tracing the port wine stain with exquisite gentleness. "Katrine was beloved above all women of my tribe but when Theorn came to Byehliy his eyes fell upon me as if I were worth as much. You ask me with fear in your heart if I was Theorn's lover and I can answer with deep regret that I was not. His heart abides with you."

Hannah grasped Eva's hands.

"I would do nothing to hurt Theorn." Eva said. "Nothing."

"I want to believe you." Hannah whispered.

* * *

Eva placed a decanter of blood on Thierry's desk with a thud. "I will not be tricked, Theorn. Not by you and not in this way." His head lifted sharply.

"Sir, I tried to stop her." An apologetic werewolf followed close behind.

"It's alright, Fillin." Thierry said, his tone calm, mesmerising and Fillin gave a curt bow a departing glare in Eva's direction and left the room.

He was unaware at what had prompted her outburst and then his eyes moved to the blood gleaming rich and decadently red that she had placed atop his papers.

"You will either trust me or ask me to leave; I do not appreciate you using the machinations of spell casters to draw me out." Eva said.

He stood slowly. "I have done no such thing."

"Then drink of this; the blood your wife gave me." She said and pushed the glass toward him.

"Hannah?"

She nodded. "It is a crude potion, you see?"

He angled his head and saw the purple glimmer upon the liquid, he took hold of the decanter and lifted the lid sniffing at its contents and drew back; it was an unmistakable tang of magic. "Why would she-"

"Because she wants to protect you." Eva interjected. "Do your people even trust you here?"

He placed the glass down and without meeting her eyes spoke in a steely tone. "I'll deal with it."

She trusted him that he was a man of his word and she did not question him further, her anger cooling and she was once more invaded by the love she bore him and esteem she held him in.

"What did you say to her?" He asked softly. "To Hannah?"

"She asked if we were lovers." She replied equally as soft.

"What did you tell her?"

Their eyes met and Eva's expression was devoid of any strong emotion. "I told her, no, I told her the truth."

"And you, Eva, when will you tell me the truth?"

"In time I'll tell you everything." She said and left, closing the door gently behind her.

* * *

Miss S


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

* * *

"Hugh." Celeste said, her voice coloured by deep amusement. "Hugh?"

"Hmm?" He asked, his chin resting upon his knuckles his eyes staring out at nothing but his mind was filled with the memory of ice and the bright colour of blood upon snow. His body was shivering from the cold and in the distance of his inner-vision a fire glowed against the encroaching darkness. Strange eye stared at him throwing back the firelight, he saw a pale face half smeared in ruby red blood, it dripping from its chin, it was a creature that was more animal than man and yet it was a man clothed in animal skins.

"We've been here for forty minutes and you haven't said a word."

"I'm sorry I was just…"

"Thinking?"

"Yes." He shuddered at the memory of the cold. "Thinking."

"You seem to be thinking a lot these days."

"I remembered something from the past." He said. "I was…"

"Yes?"

"I don't feel like talking about it."

"I won't force you to speak, Hugh. But it seems you need to talk to someone about this."

He looked distressed.

"Lady Hannah is with us for another fortnight I would suggest seeking an audience with her." He opened his mouth to protest. "Who better to understand than another Old Soul?" Celeste said brow rose.

He nodded. "You're right."

Jupiter barked and Hugh scratched behind his ear. "It's okay, boy." Jupiter sat panting his head moving between Celeste and Hugh.

"I'll leave it to you to make the request but if you feel you need the help ask Mercy on the way out. I'll see you next week?" Celeste said.

"Of course. I'm sorry-"

"Please don't apologise." She said.

He stood and ushered Jupiter toward the door. He shut the door carefully behind him and walked slowly down the corridor, his eyes on Jupiter's wagging tail.

* * *

Eva stared at her reflection, her body had not changed in over three thousand years and despite this she had worn many costumes. "We do not battle as we used to." She murmured as she ran her hands over the silk of her dress.

There was a gentle knock on the door. "Eva, are you ready?" Thierry's voice was on the other side.

Thierry escorted her through the house towards his gathering, eager to celebrate the anniversary of Thierry's marriage to Lady Hannah and also the oncoming of the Summer Solstice. Eva felt the magic move about her skin, it truly was a time of magical convergence and she was scared of it, scared of what she might have to face and who.

Eyes moved over her, conscious that she stood in Thierry's shadow, their hands clasped like a couple. Some looks were sly and full of condemnation, rumours were spreading and she could feel the venom of them underpinning the whispers of the gathered.

"Go talk to them, get to know them, they are your people now." Thierry said seemingly unaware of all of this. He gave her an encouraging push and she felt like a new born child toddling for the first time and seeing faces for the first time with both wonder and fear.

Eva was startled when she heard the gasp. "Your grace." The vampire Kallistrate fell to her knees in an archaic bow; one only employed in the inner sanctum of the Court known by House born vampires.

Kallistrate was no stranger to the inner workings of the court, and Eva had known her in passing and was surprised to find her here.

"No, don't do that." Eva said and grasped the woman's hands and pulled her quickly to her feet. "I am just Eva here. Just Eva." She looked about circumspectly to see if anyone had noticed.

Kallistrate's hands were trembling as Eva held them. "Of course, your- of course, Eva."

"Yes, Eva." She said.

"What are you doing here?" She asked pressing close to whisper in Eva's ear. "This is the last place I would have expected to find you, your grace."

"Were you searching for me?" Eva asked suspiciously.

"No, of course not, Maistresse"

Eva squeezed Kalistrate's hands tightly. "You can tell no one that you saw me here, not until Thierry decrees my fealty, do you understand?"

"Are you joining us in Circle Daybreak?" There was hope in Kallistrate's brown eyes; Eva's gaze drifted toward Hugh in the distance and then away. "I hope to ever be the ally of Circle Daybreak." She replied.

"And my Lord Vasilios?"

Eva gripped her harder than a moment ago and the woman winced beneath her grasp. "I would ask of you, Kallistrate upon the ancient oaths of Maya's blood not to talk of that here."

Kallistrate stared intensely into her eyes and there was a kinship for they had both fled and in this she could understand Eva's distress. "Beyond the ancient oaths you have my word."

* * *

"It's not like you can avoid it." Soren said as he coaxed Hugh to join him in the atrium for Thierry's pre-Summer Solstice soiree. Hugh had started irritable and unprepared with Jupiter bobbing around excitedly whining at Hugh until he grunted his ascent.

The moment they stepped into the courtyard where marquees had been raised to serve drinks, sparkling champagnes and sweet cordials, fresh fruit were piled in bowls and it smelt sweet all about with treats.

He was conscious of Eva, conscious of the nagging, invisible cord that was drawing him toward her. Though he pretended not to notice by greeting everybody he saw, he was pleased to find people he hadn't seen in months and years all returning his enthusiasm.

He recognised a voice in the crowd and turned, he filled with unspeakable joy at seeing the flame haired half Lamia darting toward him. "Hugh."

"Hi, Jez." He said running fingers nervously through his hair.

She put her arms around him and held him tight and he held back for they had been through near death together. "How are you doing?" He asked.

"Very well." She said drawing back, her smile open and eyes sparkling. "It's good to see you."

Soren nudged Hugh with his elbow as if appearing from nowhere. "Introduce me." He said.

Hugh glanced at him irritably. "Jez Redfern this is Soren Sidabras, Soren this is-"

"A pleasure." Soren said thrusting a hand forward with a winsome smile.

"And this is Morgead, Jez's fiancée." Hugh said a smile breaking out over his features as he watched Soren's expression falter as his eyes fixed on the tall, dark and handsome green eyed Lamia standing just behind his lover.

"Davies." Morgead said and reached out and shook his hand enthusiastically. "Good to see you."

"Likewise." Hugh said with genuine warmth.

Morgead knelt and petted Jupiter who had been sitting obediently at his feet. "How's Cat?" He asked.

Hugh's expression turned remote. "She's gone."

"Leaving Jupe behind?" Morgead asked quizzically.

Hugh nodded though his lips pursed and mood receded to awkwardness.

"Morgead." Jez admonished seeing the obvious pain in Hugh's expression she grasped Morgead's arm and pulled him away. "Let's not occupy all of Hugh's time."

"See you around." Morgead said with a wave. Jez gave his arm a sympathetic squeeze before they moved away.

"Cryptic." Soren murmured. "Who's Cat?"

Hugh considered whether to lie but Soren's eyes were wide and his expression openly curious with no hint of malic. "She was going to be a recruit but I…I lost her to the Night." He said softly.

"I'm sorry man." He said and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Hugh shrugged. "It happens."

Jupiter barked blissfully unaware of their exchange and he bounded between the people, Soren and Hugh moved through the crowd after him smiling and waving, sharing in brief conversations.

"Shall we say hello?" Soren asked motioning toward Eva with his head.

The vampire girl seemed unconscious of their stares. She was dark, mesmeric, pretty in a crimson summer dress. Hugh was enraptured at the sight of her tilting her head to one side, a smile curving her lips as she spoke with the elder vampire, Kallistrate as if they were fond friends.

Memories of a past lives visited upon him and made him shudder. "I'd rather not." He said glaring at her.

"What's your problem, man?" Soren asked.

"I'm not sure about her." He said, unsure of himself and the memories she provoked; it worked up a ball of vitriolic frustration ever expanding in his chest. "She hates me." He said and Jupiter barked.

Soren laughed. "She doesn't know you."

"Exactly." He said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Women." He said.

"Women." Hugh agreed softly.

He glanced back up and Eva was no longer standing there.

* * *

Miss S


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

* * *

Everyone was gathered in the large hall to share a drink and kind sentiments over the anniversary of their Lord and Lady's wedding. Good cheer gathered all about and even Eva found herself relaxing and a smile curved her lips. "I am happy for you." She said.

Thierry smiled accepting her words with gratitude whilst her expression grew sad and remote, the way only the truly old could look. He grasped her hand, finding her fingers icy cold to the touch. "I'm glad you're here, Eva." He whispered and placed a delicate kiss on her cheek.

"Me too." She murmured.

She watched Thierry move away and she stood unmoving feeling the uncertainty that had preyed her since he had escorted her from her rooms. The sparkling eyes and pleasant expressions of the gathered spoke of a people who were together, who were friends, who were like family; this only compounded her loneliness. The sudden emotion she felt was enough to make her throat constrict with tears. The past centuries had moved onerously slow, trying to reflect on it was like trying to make sense of a dark, gnarled tangle of forestland battered by wind and rain and such misery.

She put arms around herself as if she could contain her emotions or protect herself from what lay beyond the circle of her arms.

Her head turned and she saw him, her eyes capturing his, holding his gaze though he made no motion to move toward her. They stared at one another. With all the distance between them, people moved back and forth between their line of sight. There was something, inexplicable rising between them, a taut and trembling cord of emotion and he knew that he knew her through to the marrow just as she knew him.

They drifted toward one another. Her lips parted to speak his name. "Sol-"

"Hugh?"

Hugh turned toward the voice that called his name but he did not truly see Jean's elfin face peering up at him. Blinking he turned back toward Eva, eager to get back to that blessed moment of _connection_ but she was simply gone. He sighed deeply, both disappointed and relived at her absence. He had almost forgotten the sadness of Cat's memory, the strange and mixed emotions of seeing Jez again and the startling dream-memories he had had of another life…

"How have you been?" Jean asked blithely unaware.

"Okay." He said distractedly, irresistibly scanning the crowd for any sight of the vampire in the crimson dress. "I've been okay."

* * *

Eva stood on the colonnade her being thrumming with the almost contact, the name he had almost spoken that would reveal everything to him. The very thought of accepting Hugh as her soulmate was exhilarating and terrifying but the burden of history pressed upon her and she fought not to be crushed by the weight of it.

"Ms Vasilia?" It was Circe's disembodied voice echoing about the columns. Eva turned but found hide nor hair of the witch.

There was an eerie sense of _presence_ as Circe cast small and subtle spells to disturb her.

"I was hoping to see you tonight, I was hoping we could talk and there is much to talk about, isn't there, your grace?"

Eva stood as still and perfect as a statue.

The reaction pleased the witch and Circe eventually stepped into sight with a cruel smile curving her lips. The witch was cannily beautiful n the semi-light, an earth prowling goddess who wore the twin face of life and destruction. "I know what you want." Circe taunted.

Eva lips pursed, irritated but curious she resolved herself to listen and did.

"I can smell it on you." Circe said, the long dark gown she wore dragged on the ground, disguising her feet as she floated in circles around Eva. "Your ambition, your lust..."

Eva turned in a quick motion facing the witch. "What do you want?"

Circe's dark brows arched and then lowered in a glare. "I want you to leave this place and never come back."

"Why?"

"Because I know you want him and we won't let you have him."

Eva's cheeks flushed with colour, her mind sprung instantly to Hugh in his crumpled suit and the mixed feelings of possession and fear that had warred within her. Her want was a monstrous thing, as demanding as the Thirst but she had revealed her want to no one.

"You want to make him King of Vampires." Circe continued and Eva felt icy white shock, first that her station could be known and second that she suggested making Hugh a vampire. The latter thought was so scintillating that she lowered her eyes to the ground to hide how they had gone as hard and shiny as newly minted silver coins.

"I took an oath to this Circle and I take my oaths very seriously; you strike me as a serious Person too: you've taken oaths in your Court with your own People. Was it they who sent you to steal him away or is it your own ambition that seeks to make him King to your Queen?"

Circe's words were so insistent that Eva was deeply confused, she had revealed to no one her connection with Solon nor Hugh. The Court would not cast a Queen to land a King, and no mere human could ever be considered for the throne. Circe's words were absurd and Eva was happy to tell her so before the witch erupted with a hiss. "Lord Thierry is ours."

Ah, so there it was. Eva's shoulders began to shake and it was moments before the laughter followed and she raised her glowing eyes in amusement and contempt. A wave of invisible and tasteless magic rolled over Eva's skin, rippling the silk of her dress. "I would see you dead before you take him away from his wife and his Circle."

"I haven't come here to-"

"I don't want to hear anything you have to say on the matter, your desires are clear." Circe interrupted.

"You are speaking to an elder of the Vampire Court, it would behove you to treat me with some measure of respect." Eva's voice took on an authoritative tone, her posture stiffened her eyes became pinpricks of pure light and eddies of dark Power swirled about her, lifting her hair in their sightless currents.

"Ah." Circe smiled darkly. "There you are: the tyrant Queen."

Eva exerted a small flicker of her Power that brought Circe to her knees; Eva's Power had grown in the thousands of years of her second birth to something the quality of Circe's Midnight magic but it was darker still, speaking of something deadly and more ancient. Circe was unable to resist the tide of magic, it was important to remember Maya was the daughter of Hecate and the magic of Hecate flowed in the veins of all Maya's children,even Eva's. "If I must stand trial it will be with those who have authority to judge and you, young witch, are not one of them." Her tone brought tears to Circe's eyes.

And as quickly as the magic had been summoned it dissipated and Eva was simply flesh and blood and that lingering sadness of having seen too much. "There is no ally greater than me for Thierry Descouedres and his wife."

Circe fell forward on her hands, she remained that way for some time trembling, struggling to draw a steady breath and when she was able to lift up her head Eva was gone.

* * *

Miss S


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

* * *

"Who is she really?" Hannah asked later that night in their bedroom.

Thierry perched on the edge of their bed staring into nothing. "She is blood of my blood." He murmured the old writ of the vampire Houses, his lips quirked in a mocking smile. "She's my daughter."

"Your daughter?" Hannah felt shock set in, the small tendrils of jealousy that had made purchase in her heart clung deeper still. "I thought-"

"I made her a vampire a very long time ago."

* * *

_Around 15000 BC_

When Ethîn woke Theorn was no longer beside her and Katrine was awake. "Hanak?" Ethîn's voice was soft, cautious.

"Where are we?" Katrine asked, her voice was brittle and uncertain.

"We are on the west bank of the river, Hanak, we are on our way home."

"Home?" She enquired, blinking up at the white sky. "No. No. We need to go back." Katrine struggled against the layers of furs in an attempt to sit up but Ethîn pushed her back down.

"You were hurt, Hanak."

"I…I…I remember." She stammered and collapsed back down with tears already frozen upon her cheeks. Ethîn leant over her, shushing her in gentle breaths and stroked the tangle of Kartinre's blond hair.

"We are safe now." Ethîn said gently. "We are going home."

"I cannot go back." Katrine howled miserably.

"We are." Ethîn said firmly. "The jüz will pay for what they have done to you."

"No." Katrine hissed. "My father should never know. Promise you me you will never tell him."

"I am at the will of the Tannack." Ethîn said though her heart tore to see the shame and fervour in Katrine's face. "I will only say if he should ask this thing of me but otherwise it will not leave my lips." This appeased Katrine but Ethîn knew the Tannack would ask but she would rely on his gratitude that she had prevented the ruin of his only child.

"Can you stand, Hanak?" She asked slowly removing the layers of baked stones and furs. "Can you ride?"

"I can try." Katrine said with determination.

Katrine sat in the front of the saddle and Ethīn behind her, guiding their one horse with her thighs back toward the direction of the Voin. Ethīn knew the terrain well and as it was her horse she knew it was well accustomed to it. She rode the horse unto the last breath of its body and in the white wildness between two tress it slumped and died.

Ethîn offered it as sacrifice to Morana, praising the goddess' mercy and then butchered the corpse for meat. Building a small fire she cooked and fed Katrine who was trembling beyond exhaustion and made a drink of the horse blood to warm Katrine's bones.

It was an arduous three days of hard work and little sleep before Ethîn detected the signs of the Voin's settlement.

Ákos was guarding the line of trees and he came upon them, Ethîn supporting the weight of Katrine as they walked one painstaking step at a time toward him.

"Stop." Ákos shouted for he was some metres from them. "Who are you?"

"Come and help your Hanak to her hearth." Ethîn cried out, her voice strained and unlike her own.

"Is that you_ veralei_?" Ákos shouted.

"Of course it is." Ethîn hissed and began to choke and cough and she faltered, both men fell to the snow. Katrine could manage a weak shout and Ákos set of in a sprint to fetch more strong men to aid him.

* * *

Ethîn had a spell of unconsciousness, she remembered the soft damp embrace of the snow and then her eyes snapped open and she was beside the crackling fires of a hearth. The scent of stew and smoke assaulted her and she turned on her side as she began to cough.

"Peace, peace, _verale_." A soft female voice cooed in her ear until the coughing subsided and she could do no more than concentrate on drawing a clear breath.

A bowl of steaming brother was set on the ground beside her, she lay on two layers of furs and was able to tentatively reach out and pull the bowl toward her. With frozen fingers she managed a weak grip on the bowl, the broth sloshing over the sides onto the skins on the ground.

She put it to her cracked and bleeding lips and gulped a mouthful that burnt her tongue and throat and set her to coughing again.

"Here." Someone took the bowl gently from her, more than half the contents soaking the floor. An arm helped her sit up and the other held the bowl to her lips so that she might sip on it, she gained strength from the broth, the warmth, the kindness and when her vision cleared she was startled to find Hanak Elica the one who administered her food.

"Peace, _verale_." She said again so Ethîn might keep her mouth shut. She did as she was told but stared up at her mother with wonder at the unexpected kindness.

"Is she here?" She heard the Tannack's unmistakable voice beyond the tent curtain. "Where is the _verale _bitch?"

"Tannack-" Elica stood as Orech strode inside, his expression flushed with anger. He glared at Elica before taking hold of Ethîn by the hair, dragging her up. "You have caused war between us." Orech growled and hit her with the back of his hand, splitting her lip and send her sprawling across the tent. "What mad things happened that you should do such a thing?"

Ethîn prostrated herself in front of the Tannack. "The hunters wish was to rape and ruin of the Jewel before she would be presented to Chief Argan."

"It is not my lot to care what they do with the gift I have made. With your actions you have sealed the fate between our tribes. They will call their vast armies to war against us." Ethīn was horrified with Orech and the ugliness of his face as he expelled his words with such hatred.

Hanok Imre stood at his back, a satisfied smugness to his expression that made Ethîn's blood boil.

"If the Great Jüz have Bythinia for an ally their armies will be vast and move with purpose." Orech growled.

"They will not cross the Ider for fear of the river god." Imre murmured.

"The Bythinians may hold no such qualms." Orech's eyes fixed to Ethīn's red and swollen face. "You have brought war to the Voin."

Ethīn could not be consoled, Orech's outrage and hatred was clear in his tone and she knew for her it would be death.

"Take her and sharpen your axe, Imre." Orech said.

It was not long before she was tied to a tent pole in the Tannack's tent awaiting her execution. Time passed and she called out to Morana and her mercies that had ever saved Ethîn from death.

Young men entered, Ákos at the front leading two other young hunters: Ernð and Ignác with him. In their hands they held stout branches for flogging and their eyes were glowing with anticipation.

"You are a traitor, Ethîn." Ignác hissed. "Do you know what we do to traitors here?"

Of course there had never been a traitor known in Ethîn's lifetime and whatever punishment they would deliver would be what their hearts desired and not measured by any true justice. She did not know who delivered the first blow and soon it didn't matter.

* * *

"Please father." Katrine cried out and stepped forward, approaching her father's prominent seat with dewy eyes. "Ethīn saved my life…she tried to preserve my honour."

"She has also incited war." He roared and everything within the Tannack's tent flinched. His Dathack, the Hanaks and Hanoks who stood about the edges, mindful of the Tannack's wrath but eager to see the execution of the _verale_ that they had ever been suspicious of.

"The Chief and hunters of the Jüz deserve to die." Katrine ground out.

Orech reached in a sudden motion and ran knuckles across her cheekbone, Katrine flinched but her father's touch remained kind. "Ethīn alone will bear the punishment for your loose tongue, daughter."

Katr pulled Katrine back to the edge of the gathered people and a swirl of snow and biting wind swept through the tent as the flap was pulled back abruptly exposing Theorn in a dim shaft of light.

"I've come for Ethīn." Theorn said imperiously.

There was fire in Katrine's eyes and she answered first. "She is to be executed."

"For what?"

"For saving me-" Katrine managed, her mother placed a hand over her daugher's mouth smothering any more words she may have spoken.

"Making war with the Great Jüz." The Tannack said and stood, stepping forward. "You are not welcome any longer, foreigner."

"I have come for the girl and then you will never see me again."

Katr put a protective hand on Katrine's shoulder and all thought he spoke of her.

"Not her." Theorn said but stared at the fire beyond where the scream of Ethīn rose like a banshee's cry.

"She is a traitor and under our law she will be put to death as she should have been at birth." Orech stood in front of his wife and daughter, his eyes vitriolic as they met Theorn's.

"Allow me to see her." Theorn said.

Orech seemed to think upon it and after a few moments of silence he assented and escorted Theorn himself to the tent where she was being held. When they entered Ethīn was alone but doubled over both bloody and bruised. She was barely conscious, her body trembling with pain of being beaten.

"Why?" He asked Orech.

"She has defied me; she has defied the Great Jüz."

"The hunters of the jüz took the Jewel of the Voin by force and Ethīn's intent only to bring her back to you with her virtue intact."

Orech's cheeks glowed with fury.

"Give her to me." Theorn said.

"I will not."

"What use would it be to take her life?"

"Her head will be a tribute of peace to the Great Jüz."

Theorn's fangs came out. "That I cannot allow."

He took hold of Orech's throat and stared deep into his eyes, his large dark eyes hypnotising the Tannack with ease. "Go back to your tent and calm your people, you will not think of me being here, nor Ethīn with me. You will sleep a night and a day before you wake."

Orech's lips moved in paroxysms but no words left his lips. He walked out of the tent and back to his own leaving Theorn to kneel before Ethīn and he cradled the girl who whimpered as he took hld of her bruised tender flesh.

"What are you doing here?" She rasped and she struggled to regain her composure and he could see the pain clearly on her face. "They will kill me soon."

He didn't speak instead he gently felt her ribs, they were tender, probably broken, the rasp in her breath probably meant her lungs had been pierced. "I only flee to the fate that should have been mine when I was born." She whispered.

"It's barbaric." He growled.

"And you know of another way, demon?"

Hs eyes were gleaming with an eldritch inner light as he spoke. "Perhaps." Her eyes were still keen when they met his with no trace of fear.

"Do you come to make me like you? To take me beyond the snow?"

His whole body recoiled, revolted by the idea of making another vampire, thinking of the sorrow and heartbreak that would follow.

"There is nothing left for me here: not my tribe nor honour: would you rather I forage amongst the white wolves than go with you? If all you intend to do is make sure they don't cut off my head this night, they will take it another night: you will have saved me nothing but this very moment."

"Ethīn." He cautioned sorrowfully.

"I have been as you have: alone. Who better to understand your darkness and solitude than a _verale_ like me?"

"You'll change." He said.

Her shoulder slumped.

"It might kill you."

"And should I mourn my own death with your teeth in my throat or Imre's axe in my head?" He laid a hand on her bruised face and she winced but leaned into his touch. "Please." She whispered and felt salty tears leak in stinging trails down both cheeks and soon there was darkness.

* * *

Ethīn's eyes opened from the dark sleep of death and Desya's grinning face filled her new vision. "Ethīn." Desya sword was poised inches from her heart. She sat up suddenly, moving into the tip of his sword and it parted her flesh easily, too easily. He seemed shocked, she saw the whites of his eyes and he began to pull his blade out of her chest.

Her eyes were wide her body overcome with searing pain at being cut into but when he removed the blade they both looked down at her chest to see the skin knitting slowly back together as if there had been no harm at all. "Healed." She hissed.

"What dark magic is this?" He asked.

She didn't linger over it and was quickly in motion overpowering him easily, and he was transfixed as if she had transformed into a goddess of legend, she took hold of him as if he were a supplicant, cupping his face between her palms and when she pressed her face against his she had only to smell the surface of his skin, the ticking of his pulse and she struck her new sharp teeth into his throat and licked and sucked at the blood that fountained form him.

She stood warmed by his blood, bathed in it, she walked slowly into the icy whiteness.

She had no time to think what Desya was doing in the Voin, had he been invited by the Tannack? Had the jüz invaded? She knew not and was beyond caring. She barely heard the shouts and cries that rang out from the women and children who ran to summon their men.

Ethīn walked into the main tent where Orech was, he looked disoriented, sluggishly furious, his sword was in one hand and he was pacing but came to a complete stop as he felt the icy winds move through the tent.

"Tannack." She said softly at the same instant Imre burst into the tent declaring. "Tannack."

Imre caught sight of Ethīn and gave an almighty cry but stopped as Orech raised his hand for him to stand down.

Orech turned and stared at her as if he didn't recognise her and then knowledge came flooding back into his consciousness and wielded his sword with deadly purpose and plunged it deep into her side. Ethīn did not cry out just stared at the man who she regarded as her father, her chief and blood frothed on her lips.

"I am sorry." Orech said softly and then with more venom. "I am sorry that I had not taken your life when you were still in Elica's womb."

Tears flowed down Ethīn's cheeks, she fell to her knees and then to her side.

"It is done. Come away, Tannack." Imre said and pulled Orech away out of the tent and into an eddy of snow and the chaos of frightened women. In the midst of it all, with unnatural stillness stood the stranger Theorn. There was no man in the Voin brave enough to face him for they now knew him as a demon rather than a man.

Theorn entered the tent and emerged with Ethîn in his arms and with a last look at Orech, his dark eyes reflecting strange and terrifying light and he carried Ethîn's body into the whiteness.

* * *

"That's awful." Hannah whispered.

"You're wonderful." Thierry held her closer; touched by her sympathy, her ability not to judge the tale he had unfolded.

"I've never know what it is to be alone like that, Thierry. To be denied a mother, friends, a family of your own just because of an accident of birth."

"The world was cruel."

"It still is." She whispered remembering Eva's own words.

* * *

Miss S


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

* * *

_Hamburgers_. When Hugh had suggested it to Joan he had only thought of how nice it would be to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the Descouedres mansion. "This is nice." Joan said; her voice was muffled as she chewed around a mouthful of beef patty.

"The cheeseburger?" Hugh's brow arched as he unwrapped his burger.

"No, spending time with you." She said and nudged him gently in the ribs.

He had met Joan three years ago when she had been a new recruit out of Outer Richmond, San Francisco, she was a powerful and untrained psychic and had known him to be an old soul from the first handshake.

"Yeah." He said and bit into his burger. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." She said blithely and bit into her burger.

They both chewed meditatively and he was content to be with someone uncomplicated and undemanding.

"I'm sorry about Cat." She murmured.

He winced and then shrugged, he hadn't told her about Cat but being psychic she would have known anyway: he hadn't been protecting his thoughts since he had come to Vegas he had let all his defences slip. "We should call a cab." He said huskily.

"You're avoiding something." Joan said.

He rolled his eyes. "Joan please."

"I can' help it: you're projecting."

"Can we talk about something else?"

"How about your friend?" She said shyly. "Soren."

"You like him?"

"He seems nice."

"He is." Hugh said though she would loath if he were to start dating Joan who was sweet and good and deserved to be looked after.

"Excuse me." Someone waved them down from the side of the road, Hugh glanced dubiously in the man's direction. "Do you know where West Flamingo Street is?"

Joan took Hugh's arm and lead him across the road to the dark haired man was waiting. "Where do you want to go?" Joan asked.

"West Flamingo Street." He said with a hopeful glean in his voice.

"Sure, it's just up that-"

"Why don't you two come with me." He interrupted, his voice changing, ringing differently in Hugh's ears and he knew then with growing fury that the young man was a vampire and he was trying to hypnotise them.

"Do as he says." Hugh advised softly.

They did, Joan despite her gifts, still hadn't discerned what the man was and only Hugh's fierce grip on her hand made her cautious.

"I'm sorry to have to ruin your night, folks." The vampire said without any trace of sincere apology in his voice, in fact he was quite cheerful, seemingly delighted that it was going so well for him.

"Where are you taking us?" Joan asked.

"There's a nice little intimate corner over this way." He said. "I'm glad you came along, I was beginning to think that I'd be done for, and I was getting so thirsty."

"We're happy to help, I'm sure." Hugh said through his teeth.

His sarcasm lost, the vampire gave a carefree smile and shrug and the ushered them into the darkness where no one would witness their demise. He directed them to their knees and Hugh put a hand on Joan's arm easing her to comply and she did with only a little sniffle of fearful tears.

Hugh was struggling to think quick at what he could do, neither of them could outrun the vampire and neither had a suitable weapon. His eyes slipped about the darkness trying to make out the shadows and small points of light, anything…anything.

The vampires leant down and Joan hitched a breath as his shadow fell over her.

"Citizen." The voice was like an icy breeze cutting through the tension like a razor. Hugh lifted his head and saw Eva's unmistakable figure silhouetted against the light. He held his breath not sure whether to feel relief or renewed fear.

"Your grace." The vampire fell to his knee in complete deference. "I had not thought-"

"Clearly." She seemed at home with his homage and her dark eyes moved over the vampire's bowed head with unmistakable disdain. "To what House do you pay fealty?"

Hugh marvelled at the change in the vampire, turning from fierce and mocking into this obsequious being. "Ophision, if it pleases your grace." The vampire trembled as he spoke.

Her eyes moved over Hugh's face but did not linger, he felt coldness wash over him at her expression that was perfectly devoid of emotion. "I want these humans."

"But they-"

"You could challenge me." She said her voice velvety dark underlined with amusement and danger. "If you wish?"

The vampire shook his head, no and moved away quickly disappearing into the night. She watched and waited until she knew he was far enough to turn back to the two mortals, her expression softening.

"How did you do that?" Joan asked.

"Every House born vampire knows you do not challenge an elder. Though he is within his rights to seek retribution I suppose." She murmured whilst she crouched to break their bonds.

"Retribution?" Joan pressed, her eyes large, her lips open her mind teetering on the feelings of fear of beasts coming for her in the night.

"I technically stole his dinner." Eva's said and her eyes met Hugh, a small smile curved the corner of her lips that only he could see being so close.

Joan's eyes went wide at the thought of being anyone's dinner.

"You're an elder?" Hugh asked softly.

Her gaze turned lightless, the amused expression became cold and unreadable and it was clear she was not going to elucidate. "You should both get back; it's not safe in the dark."

Hugh got to his feet, he helped Joan to stand as well, they both began to dust off their clothes. "What about you?" Joan asked readjusting her blouse but when they both raised their heads Eva was gone.

"She likes to do that." He murmured laughing quietly to himself.

"She saved our lives. Who is she?"

"She's one of us." He said.

* * *

Eva had returned back to refuge of the mansion with dread in the pit of her stomach, the Ophisian vampire had seen her, had known her and so it would not be long before the Court knew of it. Not long before the Night would come for her.

Her mind moved toward the past. "Why are you thinking of these things now?" She asked her own reflection but it could not answer back.

* * *

_Around 1300 BC_

Ethīn and Theorn lived quietly in Ephesus, staying privately away from the people emerging only to make offerings in the temple of Artemis for Ethīn was ever the adept hunter and had an affinity for the goddess. One night as they sat beneath the cool light of the moon she turned her face to her companion and said the fateful words. "I must go back."

"Back where?" Theorn asked although he didn't have to truly ask the question for he knew her curiosity as well as she did.

"To Byehliy." She indulged him.

"No." He said with absolute authority but it didn't seem to faze her.

"I must go and see what has become of them."

"You will regret such a thing, Ethīn." He said. And yet the ceaseless tugging feeling would not let her go these past ten years and it had come to the point of pain and she could no longer ignore it.

"Then it will be mine to regret." She said. He stared at her with those dark, sorrowful eyes and it seemed her fate was written in his gaze. "I have consulted the Oracle of Apollo and she has given me a blessing."

He made a noise deep in his throat for he did not put stock in the Greek oracles for Theorn was being of a Power and lineage that were touched by true magic. "I cannot come with you." And he didn't venture with her through the tangle of lands and disparate nations, she took rout by sea, paying for passage on trading ships and where she could not trade she coerced or thieved.

On a stolen horse she rode hard toward the ice lands of her home and when the horse tired and dropped she fed from its veins so that she might continue on foot.

The Byehliy had been an elegant arc of mountain and ice surrounded by a mysterious woodland and large planes of white snow and yet when she came upon it now after months of travelling she could barely recognised the melted plane, the grey rock peeking through thin skeins of ice and snowfall.

Her homeland was no longer white upon white but patches of white with grey rock and grey soil. Devoid of life.

She ascended to the ridge to gaze down at the planes, there had been battles fought for the earth was torn and frozen with the imprint of hooves and boots. Spears and arrows lay inert and preserved in ice.

"You." She turned only half surprised to see Imre sitting on horseback. He was badly aged, a hunched and grizzled old man with grey in his long dreaded beard and a long scar over one eye. "I knew you would come, _verale_."

His good eye moved over her up and down and his lips fell open in surprise. "You have not changed, Ethīn."

"I have." She assured him with an enigmatic smile. "Where are they? Where is the Voin?"

Imre spat on the ground beside his horse. "There is no Voin, _verale_. They are Bythinians now."

"What?" She could not conceal her surprise.

"After you left Nicomeades armies raided the Plains and Byehliy, they took what was left of the Voin with them, our women, our children."

"But you survived."

"I did." He said though he seemed wretched with memories of the distant battle. "And you, _verale_, where have you been hiding?"

"Come down from your horse so that I might tell you." She said and her voice took on a lulling note and he found himself obediently dismounting from his horse and trudging up the icy slope to where she stood.

He marvelled at her face, a gasp passing his lips. "You truly have not changed, Ethīn." He whispered.

She reached up, her fingers gliding across his cheek, the matted fur of his beard, the curl of his hair around his cropped ear. "I am not the same as I was, Hanok." She said, her voice running in a throaty sigh. "And I am so very thirsty."

He was dazzled by her dark eyes, the compelling beauty of her exotic features, deep in his heart he had a curiosity for the _verale_ girl and she exploited this to lure him down toward her. Her lips moved against his neck which was salty with sweat and bitter with soot.

She bit into him and his body tensed, arms flying to her shoulders, squeezing and pushing but to no avail, she was as solid as the mountain on which they stood and soon his powers to fight failed him as his blood ran from the wound of his neck into her throat, curling warm in her insides.

When she was done he fell to the ground, not dead but unconscious. "Let us leave you to the will of Morana, last of the Voin." She said softly feeling no regret.

The lights in his eyes were dim, she was a shadow moving across his weak gaze and as she had said she left him there to his fate upon the melting snow of the Byehliy, the ravenous wolves stalking betwixt the solemn trunks of the nearby forest.

It was on foot she moved toward the warmer climbs of the Bythinian kingdom, between the Black and Caspian Seas. The Bythinians lived in stone houses surrounded all about with a great wall.

She approached on foot, cloaked and showing no signs of fatigue despite the long journey and few provisions along the way. Her body felt aflame with the need to consume blood but she had not stopped since she had drunk Imre on the snowy ridge.

"Who goes there?" A voice hurled down from the parapet, she lifted her head to see the tip of a helmet and point of a spear.

"I have come for rest and trade in your kingdom if you will allow it." She said, her voice ringing clear.

"From what people do you hail?"

"I come from Ephesus, I am a supplicant of the Temple of Artemis I seek respite with Cotys." Ethīn knew Cotys to be Artemis' likeness in these parts: they were both goddesses of the hunt.

The solider called down the ranks until the great wooden doors opened to admit her. "There is toll for admittance, supplicant." A helmeted guard said holding out his palm.

"I carry no coin."

"Then you will pay with other wares." He said and using his larger size and shape he herded her toward the dark corridor between the walls of the great city.

She allowed herself to be led, feeling only the small stab of relief that her first foray into the large stone city was to spill the man's blood but that was his own folly. He removed his helmet, shaking out lose golden curls and she was startled by how he reminded her of Solon.

His hands were upon her clothes, shoving and tearing at the fabric and she had to grasp his face to force him to stare into her eyes, calming his eager hands and then pushing his head to one side she laid her lips against his neck. She bit tenderly, and sipped and the blood was like cool lakes of crystal through the fire of her veins.

When she had finished, laying a small kiss on his skin that was damp with sweat she asked him. "Who is King here?"

"Solon son of Nicomeades." He answered, a look of confusion shot across his features and he replaced his helmet before marching to his post.

Ethīn was frozen, shock enveloped her. Solon, the Bythinian Hanok who had shown her kindness was he not Solon son of Nicomeades, had he not been rented from life from the jaws of wolves? She adjusted the cloak on her shoulders and walked into town, teetering on the edge of disbelief. Surely it was not the same Solon, perhaps all sons of Nicomeades were named so.

The city was ordered in concentric circles with the palace in the centre, she had few circumspect looks from the citizens of Bythinia but there was enough of the exotic in the market circle and Temples to not quest further.

She approached a street vendor who was pouring wine from an amphora into a skin. "You can have a sip for a copper, Miss." He said.

"I've not come for wine but for knowledge."

"Then that will cost you more than a copper." He eyed her shrewdly.

"Your King, the man they call Solon son of Nicomeades, where can I find him?"

"That's not information worth paying for." He grunted. "The King and Queen live in their palace at the heart of the Kingdom but not common man may call upon him and you do not appear to be a woman of note."

"Thank you." She said with a forced smile.

She found her way to the temple of Cotys and was greeted at the step by a guard in the same plumed helmet as the guards on the outer gate. "You are not permitted to be here at this time, woman."

"I seek only prayer in the temple." She said.

"The King occupies the temple; it is the same hour and day of every month that this is so."

"Forgive me." She whispered. "I did not know."

So she waited on the dusty street, her eyes on the passageway between the vaulted pillars. The palace guard eyed her warily but did not approach or speak to dispel her from her place of watch. She waited some hours, but what were these hours to the journey she had made from Ephesus to the Byehil and back to this kingdom of the Bythinian King?

It was dusk when the lamp bearers arrived on the streets and swarms of people gathered, pressing hot and eager on either side of her for a glimpse of the royal party departing the temple.

"She throws gold coins." A woman whispered to her ecstatically.

"Who does?"

"The Queen."

Ethīn was intrigued at so magnanimous a woman to throw her treasured gold to the street people of Bythinia, was the kingdom so rich as to spend their coin this way? Or was this a demand of Cotys the goddess huntress? She knew when the royal party emerged because the crowd surged forward as inevitable and unstoppable as the sea.

She moved with them, though her size held her at a disadvantage for she could not see over the tops of the people's heads.

A great lantern was lit, casting orange light upon the royals who clustered at the top of the steps of the temple and as the woman had said, golden coins showered down around them and the greedy Bythinians stooped to retrieve them and then Ethīn saw it for herself.

Solon was as unmistakable as the sun, his grey eyes solid as they moved over the crowd, one hand he lifted in greeting to his people and the other lay on the shoulder of his Queen. His Queen was familiar, though older than Ethīn had last seen her, it was unmistakably Katrine who was crowned with the golden diadem and a child of a few years stood at her knee helping to launch the golden discs into the frenzied crowd.

If Ethīn had had a mortal heart to seize it would have stopped and she would have fainted dead away.

She looked back at Solon and knew his grey eyes had picked her out of the crowd, and he stared at her as if seeing deep into the marrow of her bones and the workings of her mind. Panic set in and Ethīn fled, pushing the Bythinans aside without care though no one remarked on the strength of the small woman because they were too busy reaching for their spoils.

* * *

Miss S


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

* * *

Present Day

"Where are you going?" Thierry Descouedres voice lurched from the semi-darkness making Hugh freeze in mid-step like a guilty thief; Thierry stood at the end of the hall as if he had been waiting for this very moment.

"I'm looking for the bathroom." He lied.

"You have an en suit, Hugh." He reminded with a tinge of amusement.

Hugh's shoulders sagged. "I wanted to see Ms Vasilia."

"Why?"

He considered whether to tell the full truth of it but Thierry's dark gaze permitted no omission and a sigh puffed passed Hugh's lips. "She saved my life and I wanted to thank her."

The elder vampire's head cocked to one side.

Hugh spread his hands in front of him. "I took Joan out for hamburgers, I thought it was a good idea at the time and Holstein's has the best burgers in-"

"Hamburgers?" Thierry interjected with an arched brow and perplexed smile.

Hugh nodded. "We were approached on the street by a vampire-"

He looked Hugh up and down his relaxed stance changing to alert in an instant. "Is Joan okay?"

Hugh nodded. "Yes. Eva saved us both-"

"Eva saved you?" He asked sharply and Hugh felt a trickle of fear, maybe he shouldn't have said a word but there was no going back now; he pressed his lips in a line and resolved not to speak any further.

"Ms Vasilia is resting." Thierry said mildly.

"Of course." Hugh said and turned to walk away; Thierry remained a presence in the hall until the old soul had left the wing altogether.

Thierry knocked gently on the door.

Eva was standing by the window, she was pensive, lost in a dark horizon of thoughts that seemed to thicken the air around her; she was completely unaware of what was going on beyond the door. "What do you want?" She asked without turning to face him.

He stared at her for some time. "When are you going to tell me the truth, Eva?"

"I've not lied to you." She said without turning around.

"But you're not telling me everything."

"Everything?" She asked and glanced at him, he saw her eyes film over with tears.

He saw sadness. Despair. A helplessness. He knew she was capable of great strength. There was hardness too. When he had met her she was a warrior and terribly vulnerable but guided by loyalty and belief in her leader, her gods.

What had happened? What had she become in the vampire Court?

Eva was staring down at her trembling hands, in the silence of the room she was being driven deep into her memories until she could hardly distinguish the present from the past.

* * *

_Around 1300 BC_

Ethîn waited for night fall before she headed back toward the Temple of Cotys, it was empty now, with no royal guard on the step and no supplicants at the entrance.

The insides of the temple were cool and robed neophytes moved heedless in the semi-light, their bare feet shuffling against stone. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet, there were no worshippers within.

"May I be of some help, my lady?" A robed priest stepped out from between two pillars, startling her. His face was hidden behind his hood, his palms pressed together, she noted the calluses on his hands, she had seen them the like on wielders of the spear and sword. This was not a priest.

She peered through the darkness and saw the plume of a helmet behind a distant column; she sniffed the air and could smell warrior bronze and oil. She was surrounded all about by soldiers. "There's no need for all of this." She said evenly. "I will come with you quietly."

The priest pulled down his hood and she saw the small sliver of fear dart across his face as he looked into her eyes that were unnaturally bright, throwing out the small light that reflected on her face.

"Thank you, my lady." He said and beckoned his men to come out from their hiding places.

She allowed them to take hold of her, confident that he unnatural strength could overthrow them and the temptation was surely there. "Where are you taking me?"

"To the palace." The false priest said. "To the King."

She filled with equal parts fear and excitement for she was irresistibly drawn to Solon but what would he think when he saw her? Would he tremble at her sharp teeth and bright eyes and name her demon?

She was deposited inside the palace where stone walls were inlaid with golden friezes depicting the exploits of Cotys and her favoured followers who revelled with music and wine. Whilst her eyes were on the vaulted ceilings a steward greeted the guardsmen whispering rapid in his ear. The false priest cleared his throat. "It would please his royal highness to have you bathe and prepared for his presence."

"Follow me, _skiá_." The steward had addressed her a Shade, as if she were a spirit of the netherworld.

The soldiers did not follow but were content to leave her in the steward's care, she following him to a small room where a tepid pool of water rippled in the centre. He helped her to remove her cloak and wrinkled his nose at the feel and scent of it.

"Why do you call me _skiá_?" She asked him softly.

"Please, remove your clothes." He said and she did so obediently and he ushered her down the steps into the bathing pool and she watched the dust and dirt from her skin rise to the surface in a thin brown-grey film.

Even being a vampire who did not truly feel cold nor heat she appreciated the feel of the waters about her. She had forgotten about her question, content to float for a while whilst the steward moved quickly to light the wall sconces and then retreated.

She could hear the approach before it arrived and when she turned concealed only by bath water she was staring up at the Jewel of the Voin in all of her royal finery. "It is you." Katrine breathed. "But you've hardly aged a day since the last I saw you."

"In fact not at all." Ethīn said her eyes moving over the Jewel's fine face.

"Why have you come here?" She asked.

Ethīn ascended the steps and each moment of approach caused Katrine to take a step back. Fear showed plainly on the Jewel's face, she saw how the light reflected off of her eyes, the bow of her lips unable to conceal the tips of her sharp teeth.

"I had to know what had become of you all."

"Did you?" She asked bitterly. "Where was your concern when war came to Byehliy? Did you not swear a blood oath to protect me?"

"That came to an end when your father left me to the will of Morana." Ethīn said softly and then with dewy eyes. "I wanted to live, Dathak. Is that desire so beneath a _verale_?"

Katrine's lip trembled with emotion and her pale eyes grew glossy with tears, she reached into her robe and retrieved a curved knife, it glinted thirstily in the light. Ethīn's eyes moved from Katrine's eyes to the sharp tip of the blade.

The doors opened from behind Katrine and the King of Bythinia stood in the threshold. "Wife?" He enquired and Katrine stepped to one side and dropped to one knee in the presence of her husband, the knife fell to the ground with a clatter.

Ethīn stared up at Solon, nude and glistening in the orange lamp light with no hint of shame.

"You." He said his voice soft with wonder.

"I was led to believe that you had summoned me, your grace." She said inclining her head. "But it seems your queen has other plans."

"Leave us Katrine." He commanded; his voice still soft.

"Solon-"

"Leave us." His was a tone that would brook no argument and she left with running tears.

"May I have something to cover myself?" Ethīn asked.

"Of course." He said and when he could not find anything to clothe her with he removed his own golden robe and helped to drape it over her shoulders, the gown was far too long and the hem dragged on the ground, soaking in the bath waters.

"I was told you were dead."

"I…" She wanted to tell him what she was, that she had crossed the veil of death and had been reborn, she wanted to tell him everything, of how she had mourned him, how she had regretted leaving him in the camp surrounded by the hunter's bodies but she could not command her tongue and could do little more than stare into his face like a love sick child.

"I fear the tale you will tell me." He said.

She nodded, knowing that he would fear her when he came to know of what happened to her but she did not want him to be afraid.

"Guards." He called and it wasn't long before they arrived and took hold of her arms, tying her wrists behind her back.

She was glad of Solon's caution, she feared being alone with him, close to him, yearning for his touch and more…his blood.

* * *

Present Day

"The prince was your-" Thierry's voice was soft with sorrow.

"Yes." Eva cut him off with a whisper. "As Hana was to you, as Hannah is to you now, so was Solon to me."

"I didn't know." Thierry whispered.

She unwrapped her arms from around herself and went back to the window. "Nor I, not until later...much later."

"Eva." He said reaching for her but she evaded his touch, she couldn't stand to be comforted.

"Maya is dead and you have allowed me to thank the one who took her life. You have offered me a new home, a place to belong and for this I am grateful to you." She said glancing over her shoulder at her maker, her friend.

"I am truly sorry, Ethîn." He said and left her to her solitude and the cold comfort of her memories.

* * *

Miss S


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

* * *

Hugh woke from his dream with a soundless scream; his sheets were soaked through with sweat. It wasn't often now that he dreamt of his family's death but when he did it stayed with him when he woke. He could still hear the sound of bones breaking and skin tearing, the sounds of the animals feasting on their prey.

From the foot of the bed, Jupiter lifted his head to glance at him, he sniffed loudly and then put his head back down to rest.

"That's right, Jupe. Time to get up." He murmured and got out of bed.

He knew there would be no use trying to go back to sleep now, not with the images of his family fresh in his mind. He put a hand to his leg, fingers running over the puckered scar tissue of the teeth and claw marks there. The 'wolves had tried to take his leg, the doctors and surgeons did too afterward.

He pulled on jeans and hoodie, he found his ear buds in the pocket and thrust them in his ears turning up the volume as if it could chase away the echo of his brother and sisters' screams.

"Come on, boy." He said and Jupiter yawned loudly but rose obediently to accompany him.

They spent twenty minutes outside in the semi-darkness, Hugh lost in thought and Jupiter content to lope around, exploring in the gardenias. He raised his eyes to the full moon and his throat went thick with grief, shaking his head he walked back toward the house.

Jupiter began to bark and it was only then he noticed Eva's silhouette against the kitchen window. His hand was on the door handle, he glanced at her, ready to retreat outside at a moment's notice. "Are you going to run away?" He asked.

"I'm sorry if I upset you." She said softly.

He crossed over the threshold and into the room. "You didn't." He said.

She turned her face back toward the window, had she been watching him, he wondered. "I hope you're feeling better." He said and began to walk away, resisting the urge to gravitate toward her.

An icy sliver of panic went through her as he moved away. "Wait."

He paused in step and turned around slowly to face her, careful not to meet her eyes. She moved toward him, slow and cautious.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I don't want to talk." She said. "Do we need to?"

He shook his head, no.

She reached out with her fingertips and ran them gently down the fabric of his arm, her eyes searching his and there was certainly no need for speech because knowledge rose between them like a cord connected from heart to heart.

* * *

_Around 1300 BC_

The King's prison was as foul a prison as Ethîn had ever known, and she had known a few during her journey with Theorn. There were bodies wriggling in the semi-darkness, wordless moans and groans rose from young and old, male and female.

"Is it you?" A raspy voice reared its way from the mumbling din and it was half familiar to her.

She studied the shadowy corner. "Who's there?"

"It is you."

She froze, shocked. "Tannack."

Orech looked shrunken and wretched but there was no mistaking his pale eyes and intense stare. "I thought I had conjured you from my nightmares, _verale._" His voice rasped. He was not broken yet and his words reflected darkly in her, maybe she had conjured him.

Orech suddenly stiffened and stammered and lost all mocking.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked softly.

"Because I wanted to show you." Solon said his voice marked with strong emotion as he stepped out of the dark. He had been the reason Orech and curled away from her, there was true fear in the Tannack who had been Solon's prisoner these past ten years.

"He told me he had cut you into pieces and fed you to the white wolves of Byehily." Solon murmured in monotone. "He told me you were dead."

She glanced briefly at Solon over her shoulder; he was wearing a dark cloak, no longer in his kingly robes, one could mistake him for a common man if he covered his golden curls. "I am." She said.

He shook his head from side to side, tears glittered in his eyes making the grey look silver. He handed her a knife, it was the knife Orech had given her when he had charged her to take the Jewel to the Great Jüz of Chief Argan. It was the same knife Orech had cut her with intending to kill her. Solon pressed it into her hand and her fingers closed around the hilt. "If it pleases you to take his life do it." He whispered.

Orech whimpered shieling his eyes with his arms fearing the attack.

The knife clattered to the ground but she did want Orech's life, she felt her eyeteeth grow long and her eyes grow into a dark vortex. She took Orech into her arms, holding his shrunken frame. Tears fell down her cheeks, this man had been her king, her father and now he would be her prey.

She bit into his throat and drank, she heard Solon's soft gasp but continued to feed until she felt Orech's life ebb away, his psyche pressed upon hers and she observed the passing of his life from cradle to her arms. She fed gently and this was the only mercy she could impart to him for the small kindness he had shown her in life.

The moment before death she laid him down on the cobbles, amongst the hay and human waste littering the prison and watched as the last light that had once commanded hunters, warriors, princes fade to nothing.

Ethîn wiped her mouth but it did not clear her face of the red stain of his blood; she turned to Solon with her blood smeared face, showing him the horror of what she had become.

He reached out, his fingertips inches from touching her cheek, they trembled before her eyes. "You should have killed them all." Ethîn said without inflection.

"Come with me." He said and grasped her hand and the contact made her shiver and she was overwhelmed with the sense of him. Different but not different.

He pulled her through a darkly lit network of tunnels and corridors emerging in richly decorated chambers through a secret door, he lit the lamps and barred the main entrance she watched his every motion, enrapt.

He was older now, truly a man whilst she remained as she was a girl on the cusp of womanhood. He spent time standing in front of her, staring down at her face, memorising her features and where his eyes went his fingertips followed tracing her nose, her eyes, her lips.

His fingertips roamed inside her mouth to touch her sharp teeth that lengthened at his probing. "Do you drink blood every day?" He asked.

"Not every day." She said, content to let his hands explore her face, glad that he was able to look and touch and talk to her. "But often."

"Do you only consume human blood?"

She shook her head, no.

"You are a daughter of Cotys, a hunter in the night." He said. "That commands my reverence."

"I don't want you to fear me." She whispered in all sincerity for she felt such emotion for him that she had never felt for anyone else, not even Theorn.

"I'd never fear you, Ethīn." He said and his warm lips were upon hers.

"What about your wife?" She asked pushing him back with a hand on his chest, just above his ticking heart and she was distracted by the flow of his blood, his body bright and beckoning.

"You are the wife the gods intended for me." He said and kissed her again and she could not summon the will to push him away again. Melting into his embrace she allowed him to unveil her, his golden robe pooling at her feet exposing her porcelain flesh.

She undressed him slowly, reverently, her fingers working patiently at his shirt and breeches until she had uncovered every golden inch of his skin. Her fingers traced over the puckered lines of his scars wondering of the battles he had fought, the danger he had put himself in.

He grasped her hands and stared into her eyes. "Why didn't you come to me sooner?" He asked.

The first tear slid down her cheek invading her mouth and it was salty and bitter. "I thought you were dead, that the wolves had taken you and I wasn't there to protect you." Her breath hitched as the tears made her lips tremble.

He took her face in both of his hands and forced her to look at him. "So much time has been wasted." He said with regret and then his lips collided with hers.

They lay together again and again until dawn turned to dusk and to dawn again.

The magistrates and stewards knocked on the doors and it was as if Solon didn't hear them, content being with Ethîn all the while. They embraced whilst they slept, Ethîn content to remain awake meditating on the wonder at their reunion and the comfort of his strong heart beating beneath her cheek.

When the temptation to feed became too strong for her to resist she stood at the end of the room, away from his warmth and enticing scent of his blood beneath the surface of the skin.

"You can feed on me." He said.

"You don't know what you're saying." She said with a bitter edge to her voice, for the first time since she had woken as a vampire, she hated what she was: she could not be content in the company of this man she would soon want to devour him and that hunger would pervade over all other senses. It was only a matter of time.

"Do it." He said with an iron note of challenge.

"You don't understand." She said fearfully wrapped arms around herself as if she could hold herself back from the temptation.

"I do and I want you to do it." He said and rose out of bed to come to her side, his warmth a shimmering beacon at the corner of her eye and a warm light in her mind.

She clamped her lips together and a fine trembling rocked her entire being. He bared his throat to her, the pulse jumping against his skin. "Solon." She whispered, her voice brooking on tears.

He kissed her until his tongue parted against her sharp teeth and the small trickle of blood made her groan and her self-control unravelled instantly. She pushed his face to one side, her lips sliding against his jaw to the taut line of his throat and the throbbing vein.

Her teeth sunk into his skin, exquisitely tender, careful not to hurt and she lapped the spill of blood with her tongue and fastened onto the wound to gently suck and lick. Gentle sighs parted from his lips from the surprising warmth and pleasure of the feeding and he held her close and together they descended to the ground to make love, connected from above and below in a deadly, vital rhythm.

"You will be mine always." He said when she had finished and his lids drooped with fatigue and mouth turned upward in a lazy smile of pleasure. He slumped to the ground unconscious.

"What have you done?" A voice erupted as if from some great distance.

Ethîn's head shot in the direction of Katrine who was surrounded by large soldiers, they had battered the door but somehow in taking Solon's blood she had missed the intrusion altogether.

Solon was dozing and had not the strength to stand nor face his wife, Ethîn feared she had taken too much from him though she could perceive his breath and the movement of his chest, his breath was shallow and almost imperceptible.

"Look what you've done." It was Katrine's voice, venomous and accusatory. "Seize her. The King is dead."

But she had not killed he king, Solon was still alive though weak; Ethîn was too shocked to speak and could not resist as the large men took hold of her. She watched with dawning horror as Katrine strode toward her husband, in one hand she brandished the knife she had been given by Orech the knife that Solon had given to her in the prison. Ethîn watched as Katrine lifted Solon's head by the hair and pulled the blade against his throat and his blood spurt obscenely across the floor, splattering against Ethîn's bare feet.

No one moved.

"Look at what you've done." Katrine hissed with triumph, mocking and venom; each word was a spear dug cruel and deep into Ethîn's heart.

With a scream Ethîn burst out of the guards' grasp and went to her knees in front of Solon who was gasping and sputtering, dying in front of her. She tore open her wrist with her teeth and pressed the wound to his mouth; she had seen Theorn heal in such a way but Solon's flesh did not heal, his rattling death gasps were quickly coming to its climax.

Katrine motioned to her guards who tied her wrists with yellow birch rope and leashed her throat so that she could not escape. Solon's body fell unceremoniously to the ground and Ethîn whimpered at the ignominy of his death.

"Take her to the king's prison." Katrine said.

Ehtîn did not struggled as they took her to the king's prison and she curled foetal on the stone floor unable to comprehend past the gnawing pain, the knowledge that the world was ever changed, that she had lost something so dear and could never get it back.

"They will kill you soon." One prisoner whispered when she was silent and silence fell between them for some time before she could speak.

_I welcome it_. She thought.

From inside the prison she could hear the preparations for the state funeral, she could hear the mourners night by night wailing at the moon. "The King is dead." The prisoners spoke between themselves, their own sonorous complaints quieting at the knowledge.

Sometime during the days of imprisonment Katrine visited her in secret, clothed in a dense, dark cloak. "You destroy all that you touch." She said kicking Ethîn who was burdened by the loss and could not react. "As you took away my life and my father's so I have taken yours."

Ethîn sobbed loudly, inconsolable.

The funeral ebbed on and she could smell the pyre as it was newly lit and the King's soul was passed into the afterlife._ It will not be long before my execution_, she thought and she hoped she would pass through Solon's flame and that they might pass into the same halls of death.

There was a commotion all about her, someone was pounding on the gaol doors and the prisoners were wailing and cheering and Ethîn huddled into a tight ball trying to block everything out.

The door was torn open, the iron hinges squealed and broke and light burst into the darkness. She squinted up to see a familiar silhouette. "Theorn." She breathed.

"Come now." He said taking hold of her wrist and tugging her to her feet, she felt light and hollow. "We must go."

"You don't know what I've done." She said trying to pull back his wrist from his grasp, resisting leaving the pungent, darkness of the prison.

"It doesn't matter now, Ethīn." He said and his eyes burnt solidly into hers and she understood in the passing of time all of this would fade.

"I should have listened to you." She whispered.

"It doesn't matter now." He said again through his teeth and pulled her through the palace. She had to jump over the bodies of fallen guards, not dead, no Theorn would never kill anyone.

He pulled her through the city, her eyes blurred by hopeless tears, the hole in her chest yawning wider with despair; this feeling would never fade, she knew. Then she saw the pyre, Solon's body wrapped in his kingly robes and the funeral fire rising high around him, yet to consume his flesh.

The heat of the flame searing against her cheeks, the smoke perfumed her clothes. "Ethîn." Theorn hissed in her ear and she fled with him toward the darkness.

* * *

"That wasn't your fault, Ethīn." Hugh said and stroked her silky dark hair away from her face as if he could brush away the burden of guilt in her soul.

"I'm glad you came to me." He said. "But why?"

"Because it was time." She said.

"Did you come here for me?"

She seemed to consider this for a time. "I believe the Powers brought me to you and I couldn't resist them."

"If you had known that I was an old soul would you have sought me out earlier?"

She closed her eyes. "Yes." Tears leaked from her eyes.

Her head lay against his naked chest as she listened to the ticking of his heart. "I left you to the wolves." She whispered, her hand moved over his hip, his thigh and the scars that decorated his leg.

"Don't." He said and she paused to look up into his eyes, and saw the phantom of loss there.

"I can make them go away." She said softly.

He shook his head from side to side, no, and so she resumed her exploration of the puckered flesh and where her hand went her mouth followed.

* * *

Miss S


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

* * *

Hugh left Eva sleeping in his bed; endless hours they had spent talking, laughing, and grieving together. Together. At least they were together. He was filled with joy that pushed the grief and emptiness of any loss he had suffered out.

He marvelled at Eva's sweetness and the untouched core of gentleness that in becoming a vampire had not changed. By night as he slept he dreamt of peaceful things, no longer seeing the snapping jaws or glistening claws of the 'wolves that had parted him from his family. Ethîn was a mistress of wolves and alleviated his fear.

One and then two days passed and he felt hunger and thirst and they parted; he to the kitchen and she remained in his bed to sleep. He limped down to the kitchens in the west wing and was greeted by Jupiter who was eager to see him after so long an absence.

"Hey, Jupe." He said and knelt to pet the dog that eagerly moved into his hands, sniffing, licking and making excited noises from deep in his throat.

"Where have you been?" He lifted his head to see Soren leaning on the kitchen counter, one eyebrow arched in question. Hugh turned his face away to hide the blush that coloured his cheeks. "I've been busy." He murmured as Jupiter licked his face.

"Surfacing for air?" Ash asked wryly as he sauntered into the kitchen from behind Hugh.

"What are you talking about?" Soren asked.

"Leave it alone, Ash." Hugh warned.

"It wasn't that long ago you were so very in love with cousin Jez." Ash continued. "Or is the love of an Old Soul so fickle?"

"Stop it."

"Do you know who this woman really is?" Ash asked.

_Do you know who this woman really is?_ He wanted to say _Yes. I know exactly who Ethîn Iceborn is, she is my lover and my soulmate…_but he was caution to keep quiet, allowing anger and slow simmering panic to bubble in his chest allowing Ash to speak and maintaining a stare into his ever-changing irises.

"Her name is Evangeline Vasilia." Ash said but this of course they already knew and Hugh pressed his lips into an impatient line. "She has blood oaths and allegiances to Maya, she is among the first Thirteen - the first bloodlines - she's a Court elder and in a few days she will be the new Queen of the vampire Court."

If any of it was news to him, Hugh never let it show. "She's left the Night World." He said softly after several moments.

Ash shook his head, eyes filled with sympathy. "She is consort to the Night Lord Xavien."

"I don't understand." Soren said staring between the two his brows drawn together in perfect confusion.

"They're lovers." Thierry's voice was like a cool wind, raising goosebumps on the back of Hugh's neck, all three turned to see the Night Lord standing rigid and pale, his lips pursed and dark eyes gleaming.

"Is that true?" Soren asked.

"That's none of your business." Hugh said between clenched teeth whilst Jupiter barked as if to reiterate the grave tenor of his words.

"May I talk with you in private?" Thierry asked his eyes pinning Hugh who had to swallow a lump forming thickly in his throat before he nodded his assent and followed him away.

His hands balled into impotent fists, and he ignored Ash Redfern's intense stare that bore holes into the back of his head. He's just being a friend, Hugh thought but another part of him was cursing him, _sonofabitch._

A few minutes later he was in Thierry's office, it smelt of leather and aftershave a mixture that was oddly comforting: like being in his father's domain. Thierry stood behind his desk, his posture stiff and clearly unhappy whilst Hugh took the seat in front of him, glad to rest his leg and cast his eyes anywhere but at Thierry's indomitable gaze. "Is what I heard true?" Thierry asked.

"I don't know, my lord what did you hear?"

"That you and Eva are…"

Hugh stared at him shrewdly before deciding to speak. "Yes it's true." Though he didn't disclose that they were in fact soulmates; he and Eva hadn't agreed on telling anybody that.

Thierry's dark and glittering eyes bore into him and if Hugh were a young soul he would have happily caved in and spilled all the secrets he held.

"Eva is fragile." Thierry said his tone soft as if he were choosing his words carefully. "Despite her Power and age, she's not someone that you can treat…casually."

"I wouldn't do that, I-"

"You do valuable work for me in San Francisco, Hugh." He interrupted. "I think it would be best if you returned to the field."

Hugh's jaw set grimly. "Is what Ash said true about her?" He couldn't bring himself to say the rest aloud, he couldn't decide in that instant which jarred him more, that Eva may have been chosen as Maya's successor or that she had a consort who was a Night Lord.

Thierry nodded curtly as if he were loathed to elaborate any details to him. "Our intelligence confirmed it yesterday, she is a candidate for the crown and there are enquiries with the Magistrate for raising a warrant for her arrest."

He sat a little straighter in his chair. "Arrest? Has she committed a crime?"

"Desertion."

Hugh shook his head vaguely from side to side. "If I may be so bold, my lord what have you got in mind for her?"

He stared for several moments of silence and his voice was grave but not without sympathy. "I'm sending her away where she'll be safe."

"You can't." Hugh said.

"I can and I will." He knew from the look and tone, it wasn't something he could push the vampire on and so he sat back in the chair to consider the sudden separation. "But-" He began but Thierry cut him off abruptly. "Is there some reason which you need to disclose to me, Mr Davies?"

He shook his head, no. Thierry looked disappointed and turned his back on Hugh indicating that their conversation was over.

"Thank you, my lord." Hugh said softly to his back and left the room quietly.

* * *

Miss S


	18. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

* * *

Hugh hesitated before he opened the door and found Eva staring out of the window, the bed sheets gathered to conceal her nudity, her hair falling to veil her face.

Jupiter barked and bounded into the room eager to greet her, she turned and knelt to receive the dog, talking softly to him in her ancient native tongue. Hugh remained in the doorway staring down at her and she was perfectly lovely and captivating but still he simmered with fury; she seemed completely oblivious as she pressed her face against the dog's body.

"Who is Xavien?" He asked softly.

She went rigid.

"Eva?" He prompted.

"Someone I knew." She murmured unable to meet his eyes.

He knelt down, his fingers running through Jupiter's fur, trying and failing to catch her eye. "You knew or _knew_?"

"Why are you asking me this?" She asked, her accent was more pronounced when she was distressed, exasperated she stood clutching the sheets to her body.

He stood too, glaring at her. "I only want the truth."

"Why can't the truth be here and now?" She asked and he was tempted to do as she asked to forget the green vines of jealousy that were creeping across his heart, the awful possessive part that had reared up and taken hold of his reason the closer he got to her now there was part of her life he would never know and could never be a part of and he was frustrated by it, frightened by it.

He moved away from her, trying to concentrate on regulating his breath and pushing down the wealth of emotion; she stared at him and he watched her expression turn remote, almost cold, though she could not hide the tears that gathered in her eyes.

"Xavien is my husband." She said flatly.

"You're married?"

"Should that matter?" She asked.

For an irresistible moment Hugh's thoughts were of Cat's betrayal and the bitter stream of thoughts: _love messes everything up, vampires mess everything up_. Staring at the vampire girl he realised that he did not know her at all. He had been so many lifetimes without a soulmate, why would he need one now?

She seemed to know his thoughts without him having spoken out loud and she perched on the edge of the bed, Jupiter sitting dutifully by her, her hand rested atop his head and she looked like something that had stepped out of legend. "When our Queen died disorder came to the Court and it was in the midst of the chaos that I managed to escape."

"Escape?"

"The Court…_him_."

"Did he keep you prisoner?" A note of concern crept into his voice.

"I was bound to the oaths I made to my Queen." She said as the first spray of tears fell from her eyes. "It's complicated."

"Isn't it always?" He asked bitterly.

* * *

_Around 1250 BC_

Time had passed and Horemheb was Pharaoh in Egypt when Ethīn and Theorn lived in Thebes.

They had travelled together for two hundred years, careful not to stay in one place for too long, witnessing the human cultures rise and fall in birth and bloodshed.

In Thebes, Ethīn spent her nights in the temple of Hathor.

"It is peaceful in here." Ethīn said softly to the columns and plinths.

A fellow supplicant came to kneel beside her, Ethīn had seen her in the Temple every night these past few weeks. She was young, and had the look of a fair skinned Egyptian with golden-brown skin, dark rippling hair and dark brown eyes. "I too seek solace inside such places." The woman said with a small, sad smile. "There is peace in here not unlike the tomb and I think all dead, even those that walk, find solace in places like the grave."

"Why do say such things?" Eva asked ever so softly, her heart thundering guiltily with stolen blood.

"I know what you are, Ethīn." She said and leaned closer until their breath mingled. "My name is Ishtar-Belessa and I am the same as you."

Ethīn drew back as if she had been struck. "That cannot be."

Ishtar-Belessa put an icy cold hand upon Ethīn's arm and she shivered beneath her touch. "You are not alone." She said and smiled revealing her inhuman sharp teeth.

Ethīn lips fell open shock pierced her to the core for she had never before met a being like her other than Theorn who had made her. "How?"

"We share blood, for all our kind was engendered in Maya our Queen; did your maker not tell you this?"

She shook her head slowly from side to side, no.

"Perhaps they thought to spare you."

"Spare me from what?"

The woman laughed enigmatically under her breath.

That night Ethīn walked for hours before returning home and when she passed the threshold Theorn was sitting at their table, as if he were waiting for her for some time. She froze, guilt rearing up on her, afraid that he could read on her what had happened in the night.

"I've found her." He said, his voice soft with emotion.

She startled, those words like a hard slap across the face. "Where?" She asked.

"North." He replied.

Her heart fell. "I cannot go north." She murmured her chest aching at the old wound of losing the one most dear to her.

"But I must." Theorn said.

"Then you have no use for me." She said and was about to turn when he grasped her wrist and pulled her back.

He took hold of her hands and held them against him. "I have waited so long Ethīn and I have finally found her-"

"I met someone in the temple tonight." She interrupted. "A girl who is like us."

He went rigid, his dark gaze indecipherable. "There is no one like us in this place, not in all of Egypt." He said his voice low and curling with anger.

"You're wrong."

He released her wrist and turned his back on her to hide his thoughts from her intent gaze.

"Why did you not tell me about Maya?" She asked.

"Where did you hear that name?"

"The vampire Ishtar-Belessa."

He seemed to withdraw from her altogether though he remained in the room. Several moments of silence ticked by until she couldn't stand it and she touched his arm. "Theorn look at me." She said gently but he refused to turn or acknowledge her at all. "I have a right to know the truth."

"The truth?" He hissed then and whirled around his black eyes dominating his face. "Maya is the first of what we are; she forced this curse on me and caused me to hurt those I love."

"Ishtar-Belessa called her a Queen."

"A self-styled Queen who takes what she pleases as it pleases her."

"You should have told me." She said softly.

"For what purpose? I didn't want you to be tempted by her."

"And what has she to tempt me with, Theorn?" He stared at her silently once again, refusing to answer her question and it made her angry, her lashes narrowed in a glare and with a disgusted noise deep in her throat she left him.

She did not know how long she walked the streets, heedless to the dangers that lurked beneath awnings and in the narrow alleys. No one approached her for a fierce dark cloud shrouded her countenance warning off even the most hardened opportunist.

She walked until she stood in the shadow of the temple. She sated into the dark wondering what purpose she would have when Theorn would leave her, wondering what was so terrible about their own kind that Theorn would want to spare her? She felt the thoroughness of her isolation and then the vampires came.

She could feel them like light reflecting off the facets of a jewel in her mind, shimmering Presences, one moment distant and then materialising from the darkness and the beings were mesmerising…beautiful.

Ishtar-Belessa she recognised right away and was deeply glad to see her, a tall man stood close behind her, his eyes the shade of the petals of a Celosia. One by one they arrived, an eclectic mix of shapes and sizes but all vibrating with the same predatory danger. Then a vampire came with hair a shade of blond and eyes a shade of blue that reminded her of Solon and her breath hitched. How she stared then and started to find the differences: he was smaller in stature but no less strong, his features were more delicate, almost pretty, and rather than the soft kindness of her lover's eyes his eyes possessed a cold and haughty menace.

She came to observe that all of Maya's bitten vampires were beautiful and framed by so many exquisite creatures Maya appeared. It could be no other, Ethīn was sure, the woman's hair was long and black as a raven's wing, her features lovely dominated by eyes that shifted from colour to colour in quick succession.

The vampire Queen was dressed in a white appearing ethereal like a priestess. "Do you know who I am?" Her voice intoned.

Ethīn nodded dumbly.

"I could use you, Ethīn Iceborn." Maya Dragonslayer whispered mellifluously. "You would no longer be Iceborn, you have been born to darkness given the blood of my blood, you will be Ethīn Bloodborn: you will be my daughter and my heir and together we shall consume the world."

Her hand glided across Ethīn's shoulders and wrapped around her, bringing their bodies close together in an almost embrace. "You need never be alone again."

Ethīn sobbed and sagged in Maya's grasp, and Maya laid her lips upon Ethīn's face, her chin, her cheek and then her lips. The others drew forward, forming a circle about the two, reaching out to touch Ethīn's skin, her gown, her hair. The vampire who had first appeared so much like solon came forward, his golden fingers wrapped around her upper arm, fingertips like iron, his eyes burned fiercely like sapphire jewels.

Ethīn returned home later than night knowing Theorn was waiting inside. Her mind was filled with thoughts of her own kind, a family, a place to belong. The temptation to run away with the vampires was near overwhelming but her love of her maker was greater.

Theorn could read her face before she had chance to speak. "You cannot go with her. Even as he spoke the vampires materialised behind her, they had followed her home, followed her back to Theorn.

Ethīn glanced behind her at the silhouettes of Maya's kin, her kin now. They made two walls of flesh and between them Maya approached, her eyes were hard discs of black though her mouth was painted with a smile.

The golden skinned vampire, Xavien stepped forward and grasped Ethīn's wrist, his hold was cold and tight and it made her shudder with fear. "Goodbye Theorn." She said her voice breaking on tears and then he pulled her away and she and Maya's kin faded into the darkness.

* * *

"Hugh?" She enquired softly.

"I need time to think." His voice was stone cold and without feeling and he stood to leave, closing the door quietly behind him.

* * *

Miss S


	19. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

* * *

The temptation to slip into the past was always there, for immortals it was almost hard to deny. Eva pricked and prodded at those bitter-sweet memories that marred her life remembering the dense darkness like cloth against her face…

She sat up suddenly, waking from a deep, dreamless sleep to the abundant darkness of the cavern. Her first thought was of Theorn, eyes seeking him out in the darkness but instead she found another vampire watching her.

His pale blue eyes gleamed jewel-bright despite the complete lack of natural light. "Awake at last." He said, his voice soft and deeply amused even as a cold smile spread across his handsome features. "I've been waiting for hours."

She was dazed and frightened not having known he had been there watching so thorough was her sleep.

He was very fine in his golden beauty, golden skin, golden curls, and blue eyes. She remembered Maya's words_ I plucked him from among the princes of Greece for when I looked upon him he was surely Apollo in the flesh_ and if Ethîn had to choose a golden god of the sun it would be the vampire standing there.

"Don't be afraid." He said.

"I'm not." She lied.

He moved, the sound of fabric slithering against rock filled the cavern, she felt a sudden draught of cold air and it caused her to shudder.

"I can smell your fear." He whispered with a perverse smile turning his lips.

"You confuse fear with caution." She glared at him, hoping the expression would hide the multitude of doubts and fear.

He threw back his head as he laughed, it was a rich thrilling sound, very beautiful but again cold and mocking. Ethîn gathered her wolf pelt closer to her body as if she could ward off the cold that emanated from within. "I am Xavien."

"I know who you are." She whispered.

It pleased him that she said this, his blue eyes flared with unearthly light. "Why are you here?" He asked.

Her thoughts raced, provoked by his question _why are you here_:would she go back to being anybody's piece of meat here in Maya's domain? Frustration: why had she not thought of this before? Sadness: the haunted dark gaze of her maker which was seared into her memory as she said her final and thoroughly inadequate_ goodbye_.

"I'm curious..." He said hands on the stone that she lay upon, leaning forward, those eyes casting their light upon her face. "…as to where you have come from."

She glanced up at him, at his lips, his nose, the golden curl of hair, anywhere but at his eyes. "From the ice lands north." She murmured.

"North?" He smiled and traced her cheek with a fingertip and beneath her chin to tip her face upward. "Such eyes speak of the East."

She drew her head back. "What do you know of the East?"

"The East where the Jiouszhou rage."

She glared at him and suppressed a shudder.

He leaned over her again with a fanged smile. "Born in ice with fire in the blood."

"Is that what you want?" She whispered. "My blood?"

He sniffed her throat. "Your blood, your body, your soul." She recoiled from him and he reared back laughing his condescending and beautiful laugh. "All in good time."

"Where is Maya? Where is the Queen?"

He walked further out in the darkness, her eyes followed him because he was a dangerous animal stalking in the outer darkness more than the white wolves of the Voin for he not only wanted her blood and her body but her very soul.

"You need not worry about the others." He said silkily. "You will be mine Ethîn and you will never ask for another."

"Why should I be yours?"

He moved so fast he was in front of her, he grasped her by the throat and pulled her forward, he laid his lips against hers his kiss as ephemeral as rain. "You have a touch of the gods, Ethîn Iceborn and so do I." He spoke against her mouth and she shuddered with no will to defend herself.

* * *

Miss S


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

* * *

Eva sat on the window seat of her own room, legs tucked beneath her, Jupiter's head resting on her lap, she stared out at the sky but she did not see anything of its beauty. She had showered and dressed in her own room, each movement robotic as she was woefully bereft of Hugh's presence and the embryonic warmth of the soulmate link.

She had already had too much time to think, she was heavy with sadness and regret that Hugh had found out as he had and sorry that she had not the courage to tell him herself.

She had been offered a crown, not a crown but the crown of vampire kind. She was Maya's heir elected from among the Thirteen to take the mother's mantle. Was it by virtue of her age and Power and great loyalty to the vampire queen? Perhaps not, for her husband, Xavien had ever been ambitious.

Even when Maya had given her to him, Maya had known of his desires and despised Eva for the love she bore her maker; Xavien was cruel and treated her with violence and contempt. There was no love between them just the lust and violence of possession, he was not gentle, he was a hard and loveless warrior.

He was different from Solon, who was the reason why she had not taken lovers or companions, why she had never outright killed by feeding since she had taken the Tannack's life. Hugh was Solon reborn and she felt disbelief and joy and then a great sadness in seeing the disappointment in his grey eyes. She had wanted to chase away the fear in him and being with him had begun to ease away her ancient guilt.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in." She knew it was Thierry, his presence was like a cool wind in her mind when all else was fire and tumult.

She turned to look at him calmly. Jupiter lifted his head, eyeing up Thierry and then put his head back down sensing no threat.

"What are you doing with Hugh Davis, Eva?" He asked.

"Nothing." She said distractedly running fingers through the dog's fur.

"You're lovers."

She startled, eyes moving back to his and the undercurrent of anger emanating from his gaze. "He told you?" She asked her brow arched in inquiry, Thierry nodded slowly and she expelled a harsh breath of air and muttered, "then you told him about Xavian."

"Why didn't you tell me about Xavien?"

She shook her head from side to side resisting the tide of dark thoughts.

"It's time to start talking." Thierry's voice was authoritative almost bordering on threatening and she knew there were no more excuses, no more refusing to face the truth: she would have to speak them and tears glossed her eyes as she began. "They offered me her mantle."

He was silent when digesting her words.

"The twelve daughters offered me her crown and I ran."

"Why?"

"Because they are all mad, Theorn." She said.

"What about your husband?"

She flinched thinking of the constant terror which he managed his house and how she had finally fled. "Maya gave me to Xavien four hundred years ago, she foisted the epithet of 'wife' upon me but I harbour no such desire for him, he took away my true name and made me Evangeline Vasilia. He has made me Queen."

"He's registered as your legal consort, I checked the court records, it was all appropriately sanctioned."

She smiled archly. "Yes, the paperwork must be very proper indeed. I wandered with Maya for many centuries and she punished me often as if I were a pale shadow of you."

"I didn't know."

"How could you?" Eva asked. "I was not the only one, for her jealousies were vast and I was content to belong, even if the price was my ignominy. It pleased our Queen to give me to him for she knew how much I hated him."

Thierry stared at her his expression caught between impatience, horror and pity.

Eva continued to idly pet the dog and he was content beneath her ministrations. "I could not escape him until she was sundered from this world and then they offered me her crown; if I were to be Queen then it would follow that he would be King and perhaps he saw such a future in me that he appealed to her for a marriage. Maya's death has stirred up many things, oaths are now undone and debts no longer need be paid. Some of us seek freedom from all of these things and some of us thought to pursue it."

"You would make a good Queen." Thierry said with a calm authority that made her cringe inwardly.

"And die at your hand? Or your wife's?" She asked whilst he visibly flinched at the thought of it. "I have never sought a throne."

"Sometimes we cannot choose what fate has in store for us." He whispered. "The Court will send people after you and maybe even after Hugh."

"No." Eva said sharply. "You've come to send me away, haven't you?"

He nodded. "I'm sorry."

"As am I."

* * *

"I'm just going to say that I was upset with you before but I'm not anymore." Soren said from where he leant in Hugh's doorway, staring at his friend who was leaning over a pile of clothes on his bed.

Hugh glanced up at him as he thrust a fistful of clothes into his bag and zipped up his backpack. "Upset about what?" He asked nonplussed.

"You sleeping with Eva."

"What?" The thought hadn't entered Hugh's head.

"I saw her first."

"Are you serious?" He muttered under his breath and then the mirthful

expression collapsed: Ash's words whirled about his head, a vampire elder, one of the first thirteen daughters – women given the blood by Maya herself.

"What are you doing?" Soren asked stepping into the room.

"Packing." Hugh said shortly.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to San Francisco."

"So soon?"

He nodded. "I've been given my orders: there's work to do."

"What about Eva?"

He threw down his shirt. He was still furious with her she should have told him she was married and then he thought helplessly, maybe he should have asked. Even though they were connected there was so much he didn't know, so much history.

He could recall some of the startling details of his past lives but it wasn't until Eva had touched him that he had felt the connection between them rise as it had in Bythinia. That life had been a murky shadow, something repressed for its pain and the momentary bursts of contact with his soulmate.

"It's a bad time to start dating." He murmured.

"Dating?" Soren snorted. "I wouldn't call what you were doing dating." When Hugh didn't engage in the line of conversation. "Where's Jupiter?"

Hugh shrugged. "Around."

"Is there something going on here, pal?"

"Like what?" Hugh asked.

Soren stared at him intently as if trying to read the mystery of his behaviour from the light in his eyes. "I don't know."

"Don't worry about it." Hugh said and laid a hand on Soren's shoulder and forcing a smile to his lips that didn't reach his eyes. "See you in a few months?"

"Sure." Soren said shell-shocked at the sudden departure.

Hugh was limping quickly down the halls and made it quickly to the foyer giving only a long, deep sigh before he left through the door. He was tempted and couldn't resist looking back at the house, into the myriad windows wondering if she were watching him but she wasn't.

He heard a helicopter's propellers in the distance and diverted toward the helipad where he'd hitch a ride into San Francisco and back home. Jupiter came bounding toward him, coming from around the house at a dead sprint, he barked to get Hugh's attention and then fell into step beside him.

"Glad you could make it." He said to the dog.

Jupiter barked at him as if in agreement.

Hugh pulled out his headphones and put a pip in his ear and Jupiter and Hugh headed home.

* * *

The End

* * *

Miss S


End file.
